In the work of Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui duets play an important part. Together with Akram Khan he danced zero degrees, with María Pagés Dunas and with Shantala Shivalingappa Play. But he also creates exciting duets for his dancers. 4D is a suite of four of his best recent duets. One of them he created in close collaboration with French-Belgian choreographer Damien Jalet. The four duets demonstrate the versatility and innovative character of Cherkaoui's work, who is at this moment considered one of the most inspirational contemporary choreographers in the world.

The four duets were born in very diverse settings. 

Matter in its initial avatar was a pivotal sequence in the 2008 work Origine: it is an ode to the omnipresence of objects around us, and their role as buffers to our extreme solitude in today's world.

Pure was originally made as part of a site-specific festival on the beaches of Oostende - this lyrical, virtuosic duet also featured in TeZukA, Cherkaoui's 2011 homage to Osamu Tezuka, founding father of modern manga.

Sin grew out of double Laurence Olivier Award-winning Babel(words), which was co-choreographed by Damien Jalet in 2010 for Eastman and La Monnaie and designed by visual artist Antony Gormley.

Faun was originally commissioned by Sadler’s Wells as part of its centennial offering to the great impresario, Sergei Diaghilev, the 2009 mixed bill ‘In the spirit of Diaghilev’. Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui has been nominated for Best Modern Choreography for Faun at the National Dance Awards in 2010.

These four duets were revised, nurtured to realize their potential as freestanding works and brought together to form a full-fledged program.

To these four duets the music video Valtari was added. Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui created the video together with director Christian Larson for the title track of Icelandic rockband Sigur Rós’s cd.