The Moroccan-Belgian Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui is unusual among choreographers for playing with words. He tangles them with gesture until sly riddles emerge. With this especially rich premiere, for the always impressive Ballet du Grand Théâtre de Genève, which Cherkaoui now directs, the paradoxes begin with the title. In Arabic, ihsane means to do good and instill beauty: a lovely confluence of action and artfulness fit for a dance. In Cherkaoui’s native Belgium, however, the word—often adopted as a first name in the Muslim world—is associated with a 32-year-old Belgian Moroccan whom four thugs lured into their car in 2012, beat severely, and left in a field to die. In Ihsane, the gay choreographer protests ethnic hate with the salve of beauty and community. The gloriously outlandish Moroccan fashion designer Amine Bendriouich clothes the ensemble in a second skin of Arabic script under voluminous drapery. The Tunisian composer Jasser Haj Youssef joins singers, drummers, and an oud player onstage to play his viola d’amore each night. —Apollinaire Scherr