Danse élargie : the development hotspot for art.

The success of this competition for contemporary art-makers hinges on two radical assumptions:
- Anyone can apply
- Anything can happen
But. You have to have something to champion, something to defend…

A day at Danse élargie has little in common with the usual evening out for the audience. Nor for the artists. The most distinctive feature of this initiative is perhaps neither the daring nor the diversity of the projects that follow, one after the other, at a tireless pace. We expect that. However, we will be surprised by the ferment of kinship generated in the hall, in fact, within the entire theatre. And yet — this is a competition, so levels of tension ought to be at their highest! Actually, what prevails is a cheerful state of siege. By fluke? Not really. It’s the mood that sets in when we, collectively, claim ownership of an official space. And this artistic occupation is all the more joyful an event since the “invaders” are totally legit. They are here in response to an invitation, not to build a Zone to Defend but to invest in a Zone for Dance. With total freedom.
Danse élargie, founded by Boris Charmatz and Emmanuel Demarcy-Mota, shares this spirit – so rare and precious – with another large-scale event, Camping, the global meet of art and dance schools, conceptualised and organised by Mathilde Monnier at the Centre national de danse (CND). The two ‘melting-pot’ events – a confluence as much of nationalities as of artistic fields – are positioned right at the heart of our current concerns. At the 2018 edition of Danse élargie, more than four hundred and sixty companies from seventy-one countries are trying their luck to win one of the eighteen finalists spots.

1. MIA HABIB
ALL-a physical poem of protest

NORWAY
CHOREOGRAPHER Mia Habib
LIGHTING DESIGNER Ingeborg Olerud
PRODUCTION MANAGEMENT Kira Senkpiel/Mia Habib Productions
PERFORMERS Povilas Bastys, Tarek Halaby, Hanna Mjåvatn, Linn Ragnarsson, Ingunn Rimestad, Jules Beckmann
AND roughly 34 amateurs

“Mia Habib challenges our way of seeing and dealing with difference” — Tanz Im August, 2016. ALL is a physical poem born out of observations on movements of migration and on popular uprisings. The project explores the choreographic potential of this material as the mass of bodies invest space through two actions : walking and running. Social interactions and sound rhythms appear to generate patterns of progression in the group, and help explore vibratory sensations and invocatory rhythms inherent in circular movement.

Born in Texas, Mia Habib is a performer and choreographer based in Oslo. Significant among her collaborations are projects with Guilherme Garrido, Julie Nioche, Rani Nair, Jassem Hindi, Brynjar Bandlien, Tommy Noonan, Maija Hirvanen, Monica Gillette, Adva Zakai and Timo Kreuser. She holds an M.A. in conflict resolution and mediation from Tel Aviv University and a B.A. in choreography from Oslo National Academy of the Arts. She has danced for Carte Blanche, the Norwegian national company for contemporary dance directed by Hooman Sharifi. Her work has been presented at prominent international platforms including Tanz im August (Berlin) and Aerowaves 2015.

3. CHOUROUK EL MAHATI / MOAD HADDADI / MOHAMED LAMQAYSSI
Jour J

MOROCCO
CHOREOGRAPHERS & PERFORMERS Chourouk El Mahati, Moad Haddadi, Mohamed Lamqayssi

Jour J – D-Day in French – takes its title from the Allied landings in France on June 6, 1944. Three dancers ponder over the meaning of that term in everyday life today by examining specific moments of their lives and episodes experienced individually or together, moments or days identified later as significant, or life-altering. Using various kinds of movement language, they create rhythms in relation to space and time.

Chourouk El Mahati discovered dance when aged 20, at the Al Mokhtabar II training cycle (2011/2012), organised by Compagnie Anania and its director Taoufiq Izzediou. She has attended workshops led by Michel Hallet Eghayan, Carmen Blanco Principal, Youness Khoukhou, Mathilde Monnier, Pierre Droulers, Bernardo Montet, Elsa Wolliaston and Vera Montero. Recently, she worked with Ballet Gnawa in Casablanca, as part of Khalid Benghrib’s show LHAL. She will soon be seen as performer in two upcoming productions: Checkpoint by Eric Oberdoff of la compagnie Humaine and HUNNA by Khalid Benghrib.
Moad Haddadi was born in Marrakesh in 1994. He learnt his first steps in dance from Said Ait Elmoumen, Kamal Aadissa and Taoufiq Izeddiou during the training programme Al Mokhtabar. After his street experience with hip-hop, he participated in Compagnie Anania’s “Indoor Outdoor” project during the Daba Maroc à Bruxelles artistic season in that city. He has attended workshops led by Mathilde Monnier, Pierre Droulers, Radouan Miriziga and Youness Khoukhou, among others. He made his first solo, Nari chtaht, in 2016.
Mohamed Lamqayssi, born in 1992, is a dancer-choreographer who began his training in contemporary dance in 2011 with Compagnie Anania. He has worked in Morocco, Europe and in the Middle East, and trained under several choreographers and theatre directors including Taoufiq Izeddiou, Bernardo Montet, Carmen Blanco Principal, Michel Hallet Eghayan, La Ribot and Lucinda Childs. In 2015, he made his first solo NAFAS before being selected as principal dancer by Compagnie Mintala. He is currently dancing with Radouan Mrizigua on the show 8, a work in progress.

All three artists developed their work within the On Marche initiative.

5. CLÉMENTINE VANLERBERGHE / FABRITIA D’INTINO
Plubel

FRANCE / ITALY
CHOREOGRAPHERS Fabritia D’Intino, Clémentine Vanlerberghe
MUSIC Ariel Santiago
PERFORMERS Fabritia D’Intino, Céline Lefèvre, Marie Sinnaeve, Clémentine Vanlerberghe

Plubel is a journey that questions the labour of the corps de ballet and of feminine figures who were either over-exposed or, conversely, hidden. What do we see in these bodies of women that perfectly execute group movements, or conversely again, reveal moments of discordance or error ? Plubel showcases a very precise choreographic approach, one that reveals repetition and emulation to be effective tools in the erasure of spontaneity in (dancing) bodies.

Clémentine Vanlerberghe is a French-German dancer-choreographer based in Lille. After studying ballet and contemporary dance at Ecole du Ballet du Nord, she became a trainee in Carolyn Carlson’s CCN de Roubaix from 2005 to 2007. In 2011, she graduated from the Artez School of Dance in Arnhem, and since then she has been working for the CCN de Roubaix, Erik Kaiel, Cyril Viallon, Françoise Tartinville and Amélie Poirier.
Italian-born Fabritia D’Intino is a freelance dancer-choreographer. In 2008, she graduated from the National Dance Academy in Rome, then, in 2011, from Artez School of Dance in Arnhem. In 2014, she was selected by the European programme Dance Moves Cities (for Terni and Riga) where she was mentored by choreographer Cristina Rizzo and collaborated with a variety of dance practitioners like Marten Spangberg from Sweden and Contact Gonzo from Japan. Her choreographic research often revolves around pop culture, especially in projects she presents in Europe and America. In 2017, her solo Wanabee – made with the musician Federico Scettri – won several prizes in Italy including the InGenerazione Prize from Fabbrica Europa.

7. NATACHA STECK
France-Croatie

FRANCE
DIRECTOR & CHOREOGRAPHER Natacha Steck
PERFORMERS Simon Alopé, Alexis Ballesteros, Maxence Bod, Francis Bolela, Paul Delbreil, Hugo Seksig, Natacha Steck

Halfway between theatre, dance and football, France-Croatie is an attempt at transcribing a football match as a theatre performance. Dancers trample the football field, united by the shirt that bears the colours of their homeland. At the end of the match, one single team will qualify for a place in the finals. Why does football enthral to this extent? For its inherent potential for collective joy, undoubtedly, but also the feeling it gives us of surpassing our limits, and of transcending time and social affiliations. Like ancient theatre at its inception, football today has been crowned with this cathartic power.

A student of Christian Rist at the conservatory of Strasbourg, Natacha Steck put her education in Physics on hold to train at Cours Florent as well as at the conservatory of Bobigny. She worked with Christopher Maltot and Sharif Andoura at the “Ateliers du lundi” programme of Théâtre national de La Colline, then at the school of Studio d’Asnières. She trained, in particular, under René Loyon, Yan Berlier, Nicolas Bigards and Guillaume-Harry Françoise. In 2015, she joined a master’s programme in stage direction and dramaturgy at Nanterre University and founded the YNWA company. Born into a family of professional footballers, and herself an amateur player, Steck’s first choreographed piece deals with the 1998 Football World Cup.

9. OUSMANE SY
Queen Blood

FRANCE
CHOREOGRAPHER Ousmane Sy
PRODUCTION MANAGEMENT Céline Gallet / Garde Robe
MUSIC Spitzer, Thabzen Bibo feat. Fb / Famba Nawena
PERFORMERS Valentina Dragotta, Nadiah Idriss, Anais Imbert-Cléry, Nadia Gabriela Kalati, Odile Lacides, Stéphanie Paruta

Queen Blood invites seven women dancers to break out of the mould of their technical learning, to question their relation to gestural language and to performance in an attempt to make their own ideas of femininity more tangible. Femininity in dance, in gesture, a femininity that they own or that they endure… Each will, thus, reveal – on stage – the light and shadow peculiar to the realm of intimacy.

A specialist in House and an ambassador of the “French Touch” on five continents, Ousmane Sy is a member of the group Wanted Posse, cofounder of the group Serial Stepperz and founder of the women’s group Paradox-al. Ousmane Sy champions a dance that combines various styles. His choreography – which he shapes with as much rigour and precision as a ballet dancer would his physique – showcases ensembles, where the virtuosity of the group accentuates individual feats. Since 2014, he has been developing “All 4 House”, a unique concept bringing together new productions, events, parties and training programmes with the best international DJs and dancers, all around a single style : house music.

11. MAYARA DE ASSIS
ArRUAça-Baile Funk

BRAZIL
CHOREOGRAPHER Mayara Souza de Assis
MUSIC Vip na lista & A humildade é a essência da vida, DJ Row G (Rogério Cruz) / Movimento da sanfoninha, DJ Pimpa
MUSIC PRODUCTION Samuel Lima
VOICE OVER MC Robin Rude (Vitor Santana)
PERFORMERS Frederick Assis, Mayara Souza de Assis, Gabriel Lima

To the sound of funk from the city of Rio de Janeiro, ArRUAça-Baile Funk invites you to dive into street practices and discover passing carioca, house dance. Three Brazilian dancers celebrate Afro-diasporic music and the popular urban culture of the city’s outskirts : a pure celebration of, and through, the body.

Mayara de Assis began dancing in 1998, and turned professional in 2009. Since the very beginning, she has focused on a variety of styles including contemporary dance, urban expressions, Brazilian folk dances and carioca funk. As part of a Master’s Degree in Education, Culture and Communication from the State University of Rio de Janeiro, de Assis is currently researching marginalised aesthetics. ARRUAça, the fruit of her 19-year-old-career, has been made with performers Gabriel Lima and Frederick Assis.

13. PIETRO MARULLO
WRECK-List of extinct species

ITALY / BELGIUM
CHOREOGRAPHER Pietro Marullo
SOUND DESIGNER Jean Noël Boissé
LIGHT DESIGNER Julie Petit Etienne
PERFORMERS Helena Araujo, Marianna Cifarelli, Adrien Desbons, Paola Di Bella, Anais van Eycken, Elda Gallo & Noemi Knecht.

A giant black object invades the stage. Leviathan, or undersea monster, what is this thing with the power to unleash, even amplify, the imagination of the viewers ? Beings are unveiled, then engulfed : materials, shapes, volumes, directions multiply and vanish. WRECK-List of extinct species explores how movement can be created with inanimate matter and how animated bodies, in turn, can be petrified.

Born and raised in Italy, Pietro Marullo attended the Faculty of Modern Literature Federico II in Naples and the International Centre for Research on Acting (ICRA Project) before moving to Brussels to join Institut national supérieur des arts du spectacle (INSAS) and to train in theatre direction and visual arts. He now conceptualises hybrid projects at the cusp of installation art, theatre, dance, sound design and visual art. As a young artist, he has been invited to a variety of prestigious venues including Biennale de Venise, Festival d’Avignon, Findplus at the Schaubühne in Berlin and to FransAmeriques Festival in Montreal. In 2016, his production ARANCE-avoid shooting blacks was presented at Théâtre de Liège. In 2017, he made WRECK-List of extinct species at MART museum in Rovereto (Italy) for the opening of the international dance festival Oriente Occidente. This project was selected by the Aerowaves Europe network and presented at their touring festival Spring Forward, which was held in Sofia in March this year. It will also be the opening event at the next SIDance festival in October 2018 in Seoul. His new production, ARIANE (eu)phonie, will premiere at Théâtre Varia in Brussels in January 2019.

15. NOGA GOLAN
Autocopie

ISRAEL
CHOREOGRAPHER Noga Golan
PERFORMERS Miki Golan, Noga Golan, Yaira Golan
MUSIC Where is the feeling, Kylie Minogue

In Autocopie Noga Golan attempts to stage her six-year-old self, dancing in front of her parents in the living room, and through that re-enactment, explores her – perhaps impossible – desire to return to the pre-socialised body, to a phase in life when she had not yet been exposed to the institutionalised forms of dance. Through personal video archives and the presence of her parents on stage, the artist studies her relation to the girl she had been and the movements of that child. Can the educated body still free itself from the knowledge embedded in it ?

Born in 1988 in Israel, Noga Golan graduated in Sociology and Anthropology from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and then joined the Ex.e.r.ce Master of Research Choreography and Performance programme at the CCN-ICI run by Mathilde Monnier in Montpellier. She has worked as performer with various choreographers in Israel, including Niv Sheinfeld, Noa Dar, Andreas Merk and Dafi Altabeb.

17. HOWOOL BAEK
Foreign body_trio

SOUTH KOREA
CHOREOGRAPHER Howool Baek
COMPOSER Matthias Erian
PERFORMERS Viola Barner, Nicole Michalla, Natalia Palshina

Foreign body_trio explores the metamorphosis of the body through the course of a lifetime, bearing all the influences of the social environment in which it evolves. Non-conformist bodies are treated as “foreign bodies” and can be rejected. The choreographer wishes to look at society through the unfamiliar forms of three such ‘different’ bodies, and, in turn, explore how the audience will perceive them, thereby also exploring the meaning of ‘foreignness’ in our society.

Howool Baek is a Korean choreographer based in Berlin. As a teenager, she began to dance K-Pop, then trained in hip-hop on the street. Keen on mastering more dance languages, she studied at the dance department of Incheon City College in South Korea. She is an award-winning choreographer, whose debut production I want to talk with U was laurelled at two Korean festivals in 2007 and 2008. NOTHING for body, made in 2010, won the audience prize and also the second prize at the festival Erfurt Tanztheater in Germany. Her latest piece, Did U Hear won the 10 Sentidos dance award (Spain) in 2016.

In 2010, by comparison, during the first edition, the selection displayed a strong national predominance. By 2012 already, though, the twenty teams retained for the finals represented fourteen different countries. Its global reach increases the zest for freedom to invent. As for the CND, Mathilde Monnier – herself president of the jury of Danse élargie in 2014 – states that this institution is “an art centre for dance” ! In other words: dancers enlist in an artistic field where all disciplines are invited to rally together, from fine arts to literature, from visual arts to circus… But while each art form is indeed permeated by other arts, no single discipline is interlaced as much as dance. And nowhere is this universality championed with as much keenness as at Danse élargie, a competition with a sense of solidarity, where even the members of the jury at each edition represent a mix of disciplines. At the beginning, this seemed utterly incongruous. An actress (even if it was Valérie Dréville) or a musician (Médéric Collignon) in a dance jury ? Fourteen members, and only four among them choreographers ? That was in 2010. Today, a balance has been found. Half the jury consists of choreographers. And we’ve understood this: nothing unites artists as much as a competition, as long as the event can converse with the utopian dream, so the energies generated together mean more than a prize to be won. And, indeed, among the participants who’ve gone on to have dazzling careers, we can name Noé Soulier, Mitkhal Alzghaïr, (LA)HORDE, Tatiana Julien, Lénio Kaklea and Mohamed El Khatib. And they were not even all prize-winners !

Thomas Hahn

The SACD supports the programming of four finalist authors of Danse élargie.

The CND offers the opportunity to a finalist team to participate in a week of workshops within the framework of Camping (international choreographic platform) which will take place from the 18th to the 29th June 2018 at the CND in Pantin.

2. NOAM ALON / NINA TRAUB / CLÉMENCE TURPIN
No Bears, No Forest

FRANCE / ISRAEL
DIRECTORS & PERFORMERS Noam Alon, Nina Traub, Clémence Turpin
MUSIC I heard of a source, Bonnie Prince Billy / Wind’s dark poem, Mount Eerie / Moderat, A new error

No Bears, No Forest was sparked by an encounter between three artists, two countries – Israel and France – and one theme, nature. It began with online discussions between the three makers on the synergetic power that their individual artistic languages could generate together, then segued into an interest in heterotopia – abnormal or displaced formations – which, in turn, led to attempts to give shape to an imagined peaceful Nature, one perhaps portrayed with a certain naïveté. Nature, though, is increasingly getting distanced from reality and outpaced by progress in digital technology and its impact on everyday life.

Noam Alon, Nina Traub and Clémence Turpin are all graduates from the 2017 class of the School of Visual Theater in Jerusalem.
Noam Alon is a performance artist and a researcher. Since 2011, he has assisted several artistic directors including Smadar Yaaron, Tamar Raban and Yair Vardi. In 2016, he participated in the summer programme CultureLab, in Avignon.
Nina Traub was a participant at the excellence programme for young dancers at Batsheva Dance Company between 2010 and 2012. She has presented her work many times at the Tmuna Festival in Israel. She made Pri Dimionech, a family-oriented play, for the Jerusalem Science Museum, and also an installation, The sun’s princess. In 2018, she was selected for the Hamama residency programme at Habait Theater in Tel Aviv.
Clémence Turpin graduated in set design from Ecole nationale supérieure des arts décoratifs in Paris. In 2017, she directed the music video Fx of Love with Juliette Terreaux for singer Rodolphe Burger, and designed the costumes for Kairos, artist and musician Anat Ben David’s opera which premiered at the Autumn Cult festival in Jerusalem. She collaborated in the set design of L’âge libre, directed by Maya Ernest and that of L’Envol, created by la compagnie des Hauts Parleurs, in 2014.

4. ELSA CHÊNE
MUR/MER

FRANCE / BELGIUM
DIRECTOR & CHOREOGRAPHER Elsa Chêne
SOUND DESIGNER Jennifer Cousin
LIGHTING DESIGNER Gwenaël Laroche
COSTUMES & PROPS Estelle Bibbo, Simon Loiseau
FEATURING roughly 20 performers

Who are these people on a beach with neither landscape nor sea nor horizon, facing a giant wall ? Why are they caught in an endless cycle of repetitive gestures that are futile in the absence of sea and sun ? Don’t they sense the threat hovering over them ? Like a wall (mur) raised to close off the border, isn’t the sea (mer) also an insurmountable obstacle ?

Elsa Chêne, born in 1988, is a French theatre director who lives in Brussels. She studied literature and drama at Université de Nantes and at Freie Universität Berlin before going on to get a master’s degree from Université de la Sorbonne-Paris 3. In 2012, she made Pilotprojekt, a performance presented at HAU in Berlin as part of a festival showcasing young artists. In June 2016, she graduated from Institut National Supérieur des Arts du Spectacles et Techniques de Diffusion (INSAS) in Brussels, specialising in theatre direction. While at INSAS, she co-directed the short film Encadrés with Jennifer Cousin. Later, she made La Note bleue, a short play exploring questions of collective intimacy and cohabitation. Selected by Centre des arts scéniques as part of the festival Courants d’air in 2017, she presented the first part of Orphans by David Kelly. She developed MUR/MER while in residency at AREA 42 and Escaut in Brussels in August and September 2017.

6. CHARLES MEILLAT / CAMILLE VOYENNE / MARION GUILLOUX
L’Évangile selon l’instant présent

FRANCE
PROJECT CONCEPT AND SPATIAL LAYOUT Camille Voyenne
ASSISTANT Charles Meillat
WRITER Marion Guilloux
VOICE-OVER Charles Meillat
COSTUME DESIGNER Mélodie Alves
PERFORMERS Sylvia Maria Alves, Lorenz Chaillat, Julien Chaudet, Julien Dervaux, Camille Durand-Tovar, Marion Guilloux, Enora Henry, Martin Jaspar, Nama Keita, Maryne Lanaro, Charles Meillat, Yann Slama, Camille Voyenne

Who hasn’t ever longed to reclaim the innocence of the child that rolls around in mud ? To recapture a legendary ‘primordial energy’ ? The ability – often lost in the din and frenzy of urban life, in the hyper-connectedness of a civilisation that is hurtling through time – to smell and touch and listen. Covered in clay, water, earth and flowers, the performers of this piece become an elemental part of nature, like the men in the paintings of Giuseppe Arcimboldo. They strive to forget – for a while – the ‘civilised being’ within us all and to awaken a Dionysian joy.

Charles Meillat and Camille Voyenne trained at Laboratoire de formation au théâtre physique (LFTP) and joined hands to create Théâtre du Balèti in Montreuil. Both were winners of the Prix Paris Jeunes Talents in 2014. They have performed, most notably, at Grand Palais during Monumenta 2014, Centquatre Paris as part of Festival Impatience 2015, Nuit Blanche 2015, as well as at Théâtre de Vanves and Théâtre 95. Charles Meillat is the director of Collectif Champ Libre (in Saint-Junien) and of its eponymous festival, while Camilly Voyenne is a founding member of the same group and works there as actor and organizer as well.
Marion Guilloux, author of the text of L’Évangile selon l’instant present (or the Gospel According to the Present Moment), studied drama at the school of Enfants Terribles, and at Cours Florent. She then wrote and staged L’Ordre Règne (a loose adaptation of Romeo and Juliette) in 2013. She has worn the hats of organiser, actor, dramaturg and director within Collectif Champ Libre since it was founded in 2015. In September 2016, her short stories Mister Lonely and Cavalcade were awarded the Prix du Jeune Écrivain and of the Concours de nouvelles de l’Encrier Renversé respectively. She also received Le Prix Hypolipo for her Poussières de C. In 2018, her plays became part of the repertory of the Ecrivains associés du théâtre (EAT).
With the rest of the Collectif Champ Libre, they created a space for residencies and new productions at Théâtre de l’Etoile Bleue (87) in 2018. All three are currently in residency at Théâtre de l’Agora, the state theatre of Evry and Essone.

8. DAPHNÉ BIIGA NWANAK
Maya Deren

FRANCE
DIRECTOR & CHOREOGRAPHER Daphné Biiga Nwanak
DRAMATURG Malcolm Biiga Nwanak
SET DESIGNER Aliénor Durand
LIGHTING & SOUND Simon Drouart
VIDEO Jacques-Henri Heim
MUSIC Breton Tetus, from Chansons de la Fleur de Lys / Air on the G String, Jean Sébastien Bach
PERFORMERS Perline Aglaganhian, Daphné Biiga Nwanak, Simon Drouart,
Aliénor Durand, Romain Gneouchev, Claire Toubin

Is it possible to master something through imitation ? By watching an online tutorial ? Are there online tutorials that could help you learn to paint like Yves Klein or act like Jeanne Moreau ? And if so, is YouTube a manual of Dance History ? Daphné Biiga Nwanak is intrigued by Beyoncé’s music video Single ladies and by the whole business of reproduction that it embodies. Reviewing the aesthetic of the tutorial, she draws attention to her inspiration, Maya Deren, the Ukranian-American video-dance theorist, and director of experimental cinema from the 40s.

Actress Daphné Biiga Nwanak was born in Reims in 1991, plays the harp and loves Jacques Demy’s films. She studied at Ecole de la Comédie de Reims, and is currently at Ecole du Théâtre National de Strasbourg. Nwanak trained under Laurent Poitrenaux, Ludovic Lagarde, Jean-Pierre Vincent and Stanislas Nordey, and discovered contemporary dance through the language of Odile Duboc, as taught by Stéphanie Ganachaud. During her MA in Philosophy at École des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS) in Paris, she devoted her dissertation to an analysis of choreographer Jérôme Bel’s work. In 2014, she performed in Jean Genet’s Les Nègres directed by Bob Wilson at Théâtre de l’Odéon, before joining him on a durational performance while in residency at the Watermill Centre in New York. She is now trying her hand at an adaptation of J.D. Salinger’s writing, emulating his protagonists’ penchant for wandering around the streets of New York.

10. EMMANUEL TUSSORE
Sirènes

FRANCE
DIRECTOR Emmanuel Tussore
PRODUCTION MANAGEMENT Celia Peragallo / Jukka Studios
CHOREOGRAPHY ASSISTANT Kéwé Lo
SOUND Manuel Vidal
FEATURING anonymous performers

On the horizon are ghostly and motionless cargo ships. With a calm and assured step, a woman walks into the water. Slowly, one after the other, men and women follow her steps. The stage becomes the in-between shores, merely a crossing point for faceless bodies. No more time for wandering.

Emmanuel Tussore began his career in photography after graduating from Institut d’Estudis Fotografics de Catalunya in Barcelona. Drawing on history and current events, his practice combines photography, video, sculpture, installations, and performance. Taking a critical view of social, political, and cultural issues, he proposes a symbolic vision of a tragic world in which the notion of disappearance predominates. His work has been shown in various national and international exhibitions such as Dak’Art 2018 & 2016 Biennale of Contemporary African Art, Athens Photo Festival 2018, Paris Circulation(s) 2018 Festival of Young European Photographers, Berlinale 2017 Berlin International Film Festival, Nuit Blanche Paris 2016 Palais de Tokyo, LagosPhoto 2016, New York Photo Festival 2010.

12. JUSUNG LEE
Eye

SOUTH KOREA
CHOREOGRAPHER Jusung Lee
MUSIC Ether, Mogwai
PERFORMERS Hyunmin Ahn, Kyungmin Ji, Jusung Lee

Eye (2017) in Korean has two meanings : the organ of sight, and snow. One word, two meanings and a variety of situations that ensue. The piece presents three dancers dressed in black, who attempt to convey the personality of the choreographer, to convey the loneliness he felt and his difficulty to look other people in the eye.

Jusung Lee majored in contemporary dance at Chungang University in South Korea. After his stint in the army – with military service still compulsory in his country – he joined Goblin Party, a collective of Korean choreographers and dancers, and made Daytime drinking in 2016. Then, in 2017, came the solo My panic, and Dance floor is a paper, dancer is a brush, which won the Best Choreographer Award at the Young Choreographer’s Creative Performance platform organised by Korea Dance Association.

14. KWAME ASAFO-ADJEI
Family Honour

UK
CHOREOGRAPHER Kwame Asafo-Adjei
MUSIC Jack'Hobbit' Hobs
PERFORMERS Martina Allie, Kwame Asafo-Adjei, Paris Crossley, Ashley Goosey, Jack Hobbs, Catrina Nisbett, Isaac Ouro Gnao

Family Honour examines the eponymous concept through the eyes of a young girl trapped in moral codes mandated by her immediate environment, confronting her past ‘sin’ against tradition. Inspired by an intense discussion held in the choreographer’s own family, the performance draws the audience into a world where hip-hop rubs shoulders with theatre, and the narrative is developed via techniques like popping, with tension built through the rhythmic contraction and release of muscles.

Kwame Asafo-Adjei has been artistic director of Spoken Movement – a dance company he founded – for the last three years. As part of the platform “Back to the lab”, he has been mentored by Jonzi D., the artistic director of Breakin’ Convention, and by Jonathan Burrows. This experience encouraged him to combine different techniques and steer his work towards ‘hip-hop theatre’. His show Family Honour was presented at the festival Breakin’ Convention, Zinemma (Brussels), Festival Hop (Barcelona) and – in a filmed version – at the Short Wave Festival in Poland. In April 2018, his show Obibini premiered at Sadler’s Wells (London).

16. SAÏDO LEHLOUH
Apaches

FRANCE
CHOREOGRAPHER Saïdo Lehlouh
PRODUCTION MANAGER Céline Gallet / Garde Robe
MUSIC AND MIXING Kévin Haccoun
TEXT / VOICE-OVER Charles Bukowsky
PERFORMERS Mounir Amhiln, Orlov Artem, Rachid Aziki, Jey Athma, David Beaugendre, Louis Becker, Sarah Bee, Ilyess Benali, Junior Bosila Banya, Kae Brown Carvalho, Aya Carvalho, Bruce Chiefare, Marlena D'angelo, Philippe Dos Santos, Bérenice Dupuis, Sofiane El Boukhari, Samir El Fatoumi, Samuel Florimond, Mahamadou Gassama, Francis Gréau, Guillaume Frantz, Evan Greenaway, Marvin Keimat, Timothée Lejolivet, Fabrice Mahicka, Antonio Mvuani Gaston, Karim Naar, Jason Ngoma, Amine Osmani, David Phiphak, Laiticia Ponce, Mathieu Rassin, Audrey Trevisan, Hugo de Vathaire, Lorenzo Vayssiere, Lé Vinh, Leo Walk, Michael Yengoso, Anthony Yung

In Apaches, Saïdo Lehlouh salutes b-boying, one of the founding styles of hip-hop, and a salient feature of the French current of hip-hop, in particular, whose aesthetics and technique bring to mind the precise and delicate movement of a feline. On stage, whether in solos or groups, Apaches create a real space for individual expression and improvisation where spatial and gravitational constraints are replaced by a visual and vibrant poetry.

Saïdo Lehlouh is a product of b-boying, and has danced all across the performative spectrum, from the underground scene to prestigious theatres. He has worked with choreographers as diverse and remarkable as Redha Benteifour, Storm, Norma Claire, Constanza Macras and Wang/Ramirez. Through the years, he has developed a personalised and original style that goes beyond hip-hop. In 2015, he founded the dance company Black Sheep with Johanna Faye.

18. JULIA HENNING / BIANCA MARIA LAY / DAIN ALEXANDRA RUBIN
Le Kleitoris Ballet

BRAZIL/ ITLAY/ USA
WRITERS Julia Henning, Bianca Maria Lay, Dain Alexandra Rubin
DIRECTOR Susana Alcantud
DRAMATURG John-Luke Roberts
SET DESIGNER Maria Kefalaki
MUSIC O Virga ac diadema, Hildegard von Bingen / Danse of the sugar-plum fairy, Tchaikovsky / Il Barbiere di Siviglia : Ouverture, Rossini / Orphée aux Enfers : Can-can, Jacques Offenbach
PERFORMERS Susanna Amato, Andrea Coghene, Julia Henning, Alessandro Scaramella, Bianca Maria Lay, Aldo Milia, Dain Alexandra Rubin

“A groan of pleasure and a giggle of freedom” is how its makers describe Le Kleitoris Ballet. It is the insurrection of women who are victims of their own bodies, born as they are in a world ruled by the penis. Le Kleitoris Ballet cultivates an utterance of hope in response to all the pussy-grabbing Trumps, Weinsteins, Temers and Belusconis who abuse the power they have been given.

Le Kleitoris Ballet is the fruit of a joyous odyssey that began in France, at École Philippe Gaulier (an international theatre and clown school), with three actresses: one Brazilian, one American and one Italian.
Julia Henning grew up at her parents’ music school in Brazil. She is co-founder of the Experimental Laboratory of Art Education and Culture at the University of São Paulo. In 2011, she founded Cie des Sens and began making work in France, in collaboration with Jean-Paul Denizon and Rafael Rios. She won the 3rd prize at the OISTAT Theatre Architecture Competition in Prague. She has been teaching drama in Paris for the last few years.

Bianca Maria Lay recently starred in the Italian feature film Bianco di Babbudoiu directed by Igor Biddau. She has previously collaborated with Italian actor Stefano Manca and is a member of the Sardinian theatre company Barbigialli. She has worked with Merche Ochoa (Estudis Berty Tovías), Nicolas Cohen (Escuela Internacional de Teatro) and Eric de Bont (International Clown School). She won several national-level Italian contests in Latin-American dance.
Dain Alexandra Rubin is an actress born in the mountains of Colorado who now lives in France. As a teen, she studied drama at Denver School of the Performing Arts. In 2008, she began training under Wynn Handman. She completed a two-year programme in drama at École Philippe Gaulier in 2017. She has been teaching yoga, movement and theatre and creating plays in English for children since.