A hip-hop vision arrives in Atlanta by way of the Paris suburbs

• Pierre Grosbois
• LE HIP-HOP: The performers in Pierre Rigal’s “Asphalte” come from the Paris suburbs, where hip-hop culture has blossomed over the past 30 years. Their trip to Atlanta to perform at the Rialto will be their first time in the US.

It’s fair to say that Pierre Rigal’s dancers are excited about their trip to Atlanta, and not just because they’ll be performing here. “This is their first time in the US so it’s like a dream for them,” says the renowned French choreographer. “They are very well-influenced by the hip-hop culture.”

Rigal’s piece “Asphalte,” which will be performed at the Rialto on Sunday, October 30, is a work for five hip-hop dancers, the result of a commission the choreographer received to create a contemporary work at a hip-hop festival outside of Paris in 2009. He chose five dancers from an audition process organized by the festival itself. “They were quite young and very inexperienced about how to make a show,” he says. “They were very good dancers, but dancers used to performing in very short pieces, in the street.”