A child of Casablanca’s medina, Benghrib was introduced to classical dance by Lahcen Zinoun and Colette Milner, and to contemporary dance by Karin Weiner, Christine Gérard and Bertrand Papillon. In 1998, he founded the collective Hors Champ, an interdisciplinary research group bringing together visual artists, video-makers, musicians and dancers. In 2003, he co-founded the company 2k.far with Loren Palmer.
A state-certified teacher of contemporary dance (Centre National de la Danse, Lyon), he seeks to recover a living memory of gesture and has launched a major choreographic research project on Gnawa movement vocabularies. Following L’Haal (a large-scale “ballet” for nine dancers), Q-a / Quotidien Aliéné is the second work in this C’LE CHANTIER project: a meditation on the contemporary loss of self through the figure of Hachimo, the multicoloured wandering Gnawa.
He develops choreographic and staging work for musicians, actors and television productions. Devoted to dance as well as to yoga and martial arts, he leads masterclasses and creative workshops for performers and a wide range of participants. He also teaches in institutions such as the University of Otago, the University of Auckland and the Cairo Opera House, as well as in schools and conservatoires in France and abroad.
