Iffra Dia

In 1984, hip hop culture took its first steps in Europe. France discovered hip hop on television thanks to Sidney, and breakdancing began to appear in train stations and on vacant lots in the Paris region. It was during this pivotal year that Iffra Dia, inspired by a message of hope and unity conveyed in the early days of the hip hop movement, joined Black Blanc Beur, France’s first professional hip hop dance company. Fourteen years before the France-Brazil World Cup final, he contributed to the emergence of b-boying and the establishment of its legitimacy on stage while championing a vision of dance without constraints, driven by the uniqueness of an evolving style and the freedom it embodies.

Through encounters and performances, his gestural approach evolved empirically as he engaged with jazz, standing dances, and then contemporary dance, building a vocabulary and a personal vision of movement. The expression of the body becomes the vehicle for a quest aimed at reconnecting with his intangible heritage and bringing his multifaceted identity to life. The choreographer and dancer, who considers himself a “conveyor of culture(s),” brings a unique and humanistic perspective to dance, focused on introspection, the moment, and transmission.

Thirty years after his debut, Iffra Dia steps behind the curtain to create a trilogy focused on the quest for identity. Hors jeux ! (2011) depicts the deconstruction of the choreographer’s journey, marked by transgression and the discovery of ever-new possibilities offered by the body. The construction of individuality clashes with otherness and the collective in Issue de secours (2013) and resonates in 3.0 (2017), a female trio exploring the other as a mirror that helps combat self-absorption. Always keen to break down aesthetic barriers, he co-created Passacaille (2019) in collaboration with violinist Fabien Boudot, principal soloist of the Orchestre National de Bretagne, creating an in situ duet that brings his dance and Baroque music together.

At once a pioneer, an attentive observer, and a narrator of dance’s evolution within society, Iffra Dia dedicates his artistic vision and experience to sharing his knowledge with audiences and new generations of dancers. The choreographer engages in educational work through participatory formats: From Scratch (2019) offers a journey through the history of hip hop and its movements, while Post Danse (2021) explores the new ways of accessing dance made possible by social media, navigating the democratization of movement and the hall of mirrors created by screens.

With L’Écume des traces, her 2024 production, Iffra Dia highlights the legacy of bboying and toprock by building a generational bridge between four French performers, each carrying stories and memories that serve as choreographic fragments to be shared and passed on.

Iffra Dia is a member of the FAIR-E collective and co-director of the CCN in Rennes and Brittany.