Aleko is the result of an association between Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Damien Jalet, composer Christian Fennesz and dancer Alexandra Gilbert. It was made in March 2006 at the Museum of Arts in Aomori, Japan, at the request of the Tokyo International Arts Festival. Choreographed jointly by Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and Damien Jalet, the piece draws loose inspiration from Pushkin's tragic poem, The Gypsies, which narrates the tale of an exiled Russian who brutally kills his wife in a fit of passion. With subtlety and intricacy, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and Damien Jalet reinvented the tale through this short piece by juxtaposing certain elements from Balkan folklore as well as those from Japanese myths, rendering it both more mystical and animalistic. The themes of liberty, loss of the beloved and of exile are preserved and reinterpreted thanks to a choreography that is fluid, very physical and emotionally loaded. Aleko became the keystone of Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui's large-scale production, Myth. It now tours as part of a triptych of short pieces by Damien Jalet, Three Spells.