HERVÉ KOUBI COMPANY’S genre-blending performance What the Day Owes to the Night returns to the Joyce Theater in New York in January with the help of Dance Reflections, a program bringing international dance to audiences around the world.
Inspired by Algerian author Yasmina Khadra’s novel, What the Day Owes the Night combines martial arts with contemporary and urban dance to explore family lineage and the tension between movements of expression and movements of force. French-Algerian choreographer Hervé Koubi visited Algeria to learn more about his family’s roots through dance, collaborating with street performers across the Mediterranean, and ultimately creating this dynamic work.
Dance Reflections works to encourage new productions and to preserve historical choreographic works. The program began in 2020, an initiative by the storied luxury jewelry company Van Cleef & Arpels, which has its own unique history with dance. In 1920s Paris, Louis Arpels frequented the ballet with his nephew, and in the 1950s Claude Arpels began collaborating with George Balanchine, co-founder of the New York City Ballet. As the maison’s creative endeavors continued, dance remained intimately intertwined.
“Dance Reflections was born in this context because it was our wish to bear witness to the evolution of this art,” says Serge Laurent, Van Cleef & Arpels’ director of dance and cultural programs. “We wanted to share with the public the mystery of creation that we find in contemporary approaches.”
Since the initiative began, Dance Reflections has built a network of partners in fifteen countries, including institutions in France, China, Japan, the United Kingdom, Mexico, Senegal, and the U.S., like the Joyce Theater. It also produces an annual festival in a different city each year, often staging performances in untraditional locations, like public gardens or the lobby of a museum.
What the Day Owes to the Night features an all-male cast of thirteen dancers from Algeria and Morocco, accompanied by a combination of Sufi sounds recorded on the strings of Kronos Quartet, music by Egyptian composer Hamza El Din, and excerpts from Johann Sebastian Bach’s Passions.
Hervé Koubi Company’s What the Day Owes to the Night will be at New York City’s Joyce Theater from January 6–January 11, 2026. joyce.org