Breakthrough & Rafael Smadja
Residency guest 24/25
In September 2025, the Breakthrough Festival will celebrate the vibrant hip-hop culture in Zurich for the ninth time under the motto Perspectives. Dancers and hip-hop enthusiasts from the global community will come together, take part in battles, exchange ideas, attend workshops and meet in various cultural institutions. French choreographer and dancer Rafael Smadja is co-choreographing a new piece for the Breakthrough Festival with five dancers and in collaboration with Tanzhaus Zürich. After diverse experiences as a dancer in various dance and theatre companies (Jann GalLois, Lene Boel, Yann Marussich, Tali Serruya, Cedric Gagneur, Stephane Fortin etc.), Rafael has founded two ensembles of his own: CieTenseï (FR) in 2015 and Cie champloO (CH) with Branca Scheidegger in 2019. Rafael Smadja works as a dancer and choreographer in both companies. In his numerous collaborations, he has developed a particular fondness for objects, installations, live music and texts. Since 2009, Rafael has been organising and programming a festival of hip-hop culture in France, which has focused more on dance for the last five editions (Step By Straight from 2009 to 2014, Les Hybrides Hiphopées from 2016 to today).
