- Arthur Cadre, an astonishing artist of many talents
Arthur Cadre aka “lil crabe”, born in France in 1991, is a multi-talented young man. Cadre is skilled as a contortionist, dancer, photographer, performer, and is also an architect – he obtained a Master’s degree in architecture from the University of Montreal. Cadre uses his agility to raise emotions among his audience and offers a new approach to these disciplines by exploring new artistic methods.
But it all started when he was a boy whose first steps into a dancing world were taken early – at the age of 10. A few years later, at the age of 13, Cadre’s talent became recognised and he started to develop a unique and interesting dancing style. His first YoutTube viral video presented him to a broad audience, and it has been viewed more than 10 million times. The artist is currently based in Montreal and performs around the world.
A fully-fledged artist, he shares his art through different media, such as live performance, film, and television.
Cadre recently flew down to our island, where Brunch caught up with him during a contemporary breakdance workshop he was conducting at Studio Danceworld. Cadre told us that it was his very first time in Sri Lanka, and despite the ongoing political situation, he finds it to be welcoming and beautiful.
Taking us on a walk down memory lane, Cadre spoke to us about how dance became such a huge part of him. Cadre was looking to find something to occupy himself with to avoid boredom and started dancing at the age of 10, after watching a music video on television.
“I took some dance classes when I was a child, but I am more of a YouTube- and self-taught person,” he shared. At 14 years old, he started doing solo breakdancing competitions in France and did his first TV show France’s Got Talent.
“I then studied architecture in France and Canada while carrying on with dance,” he told us, adding that it was actually quite a challenge. “Both disciplines are very demanding but also complementary; my dance contracts financed my architecture studies for five years and it gave me a certain balance between mind and body.”
He also told us that he wished he could have carried on, but after graduating, he had to make a choice and decided to keep his dancing career.
“I travelled around the world performing gigs, doing TV shows, advertising campaigns, photography exhibitions, music videos – literally living in hotels and planes,” he reminisced, expressing that it was a lot of fun, although very demanding, until he had an offer for the “La Perle” show in Dubai, which made him realise that although travelling around was great, it was time for him to stick to one place for a little while.
When asked what brought him to Sri Lanka, he answered that as a dancer, he loves to share his vision of dance and his motivations.
“I came here because I hadn’t visited before, and I thought it was necessary to give dance students who haven’t had much opportunity to work with foreigners a chance to learn from different artists.”
Cadre told us that the workshop was, in one word, “amazing”.
“People were really nice and welcoming, so the atmosphere was fantastic. The students were incredibly enthusiastic and the dance visuals were amazing,” he described. For Cadre, the reward of his performances is always the reaction of the audience, as it was when performing for the kids at the workshop.
“It’s pure joy and magic when you get a standing ovation. It’s amazing when you can talk and share with your audience and feel that you can touch and inspire them, give something that nobody else can. This is my reason to wake up in the morning,” he expressed.
The workshop began with a little warm-up of about 10 to 15 minutes and moved on towards a new direction rather than focusing on classical and contemporary dance that the students were already familiar with. Cadre’s training is all about stretching and coming up with new moves. He constantly tries to create new skills and increase concentration.
“We proposed they learn new movements that stem from gymnastics, breakdance, and a few other dance styles to open their minds to a whole world of dance and give them something they don’t necessarily get in Sri Lanka,” Cadre told us.
Since the workshop had provided Cadre a glimpse of the upcoming generation in the dance industry, we asked him for his opinion on the future of the industry. While he believes that we have a lot of raw talent in our country, and sees passion and enthusiasm in our dancers, he noted that they do need to train a lot more.
“If given the opportunity to train more, eventually they would have more opportunities in shows and dance videos and many other, different dance-related media,” Cadre informed us, adding that while he does see potential, the industry needs a bit more time and opportunity to develop. He believes that these dance workshops are important, because they give students the opportunity to learn more and understand the global dance industry, and provide them with the opportunity to hone their skills. Cadre believes that changing disciplines often (dance, circus, acting, photography) is very exciting. He constantly meets incredible people and this tends to motivate him to push his boundaries further.
Right now, Cadre is on the way to Bali for 10 days, set to take up another dance workshop, after which he will return to Italy to tour with a famous singer. He will also be flying to Portugal to judge an event, followed by a solo performance. It seems that the next few months are packed for Cadre with a whole host of events and tours happening; he is glad he had the pleasure of stopping by our island to experience what our local talent has to offer and had a great time teaching the eager kids here. He hopes that when he returns next, Sri Lanka will have made a name for itself in terms of dance.