How does contemporary dance survive the digital age? For Marine Brutti, Jonathan Debrouwer, and Arthur Harel, the choreographic trio who make up (LA)HORDE and lead the Ballet National de Marseille, the answer is to take its vocabulary—TikTok dances, video game avatars, algorithmic frenzy—and explode it.
What grounds you, and what invigorates you?
We have this ritual, before a show, when we do a circle with all the dancers and collaborators. This is a moment when we reflect on our practices and are grateful for what we’re about to share with the world. After exchanging a few words, we close our eyes, practice collective deep breathing. And then—we shout. Like the biggest scream we have in our lungs. And this gives us the invigorating part.
What do you think is your biggest contribution to culture?
Not for us to answer. But we are firmly convinced that the way we create and the values we bring into how we work with one another and how we engage with our collaborators is the way to build a better future. A future with more care, understanding, love, and celebration of otherness.
What’s something people get wrong about you?
Everything is true. Truth is temporary.
What would you like the headline of your obituary to be?
“They Made a Lot of People Happy, and a Few Super Mad.”
What’s your biggest vice? Your greatest virtue?
We don’t pander to the audience, which is as much of a vice as it is a virtue.
Where do you feel most at home?
On stage, when the theater is empty and we’re setting up the show.
What keeps you up at night?
Techno, books, video games, and cinema.
What’s one work of art that got you through an important moment in your life?
It feels like the four favorite movies question from Letterboxd! It’s impossible to respond because we are constantly immersing ourselves in conversations with artists, living or dead, through their works. Daily, we’re seeking what others have to say about the world.
Name an influence of yours that might surprise people.
Prank videos and fail video compilations.
What do you want to see more of in your industry? Less of?
We want to see more togetherness, and we see more of it every day. Less individualism.
What question do you ask yourself most often while you’re making work?
How will that be read? How will this be received?
When’s the last time you laughed hysterically?
We know each other so much, it’s like telepathy and we can burst into laughter simultaneously for nothing because we know what the other is thinking. (We don’t know that it makes sense for you but it does for us.) And to be more accurate it was during an interview.
What would you wear to meet your greatest enemy?
A “Protect the Dolls” shirt.
What would you be doing if you weren’t working in your field?
Probably writing. We’re interested in how ideas circulate and how artistic practices can be shared with others.
What’s been the hardest part of your career so far?
As for every artist maybe, to keep on going, to keep the faith when nothing is working yet.
To read more from the 2026 CULT100 honorees, see the full list here.
in your life?
