Ali Thabet’s initiation into movement arts came through kung fu. Despite a longstanding affinity with dance, he joined the National Centre for Circus Arts in Châlons (France) in 1997. He performed in Francis Viet’s Furie (2001) but got his first major breakthrough in 2002 with Cyrk 13, a piece choreographed by Philippe Découflé with whom he has since collaborated on several other projects. He was part of Josef Nadj’s Il n’y a plus de firmament (2003) where he got the opportunity to work with artists like Jean Babilé and Ioshi Oïda. He met Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui in 2004 and joined the cast of Tempus Fugit as a performer. In 2008 he joined Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui’s Sutra as assistant choreographer and performer and worked with him on TeZukA in 2011 as assistant choreographer.