Trajal Harrell
The Ghost of Montpellier Meets the Samurai
Ghost Velasquez Group © Orpheas Emirzas ©
Ghost Stephen © Orpheas Emirzas ©
© Yi-Chun Wu, 2013 ©
Choreography, Trajal Harrell
With Trajal Harrell, Thibault Lac, Perle Palombe, Stephen Thompson, Christina Vasileiou, Ondrej Vidlar, and alternating with Camille Duriff Bonis, Wei Ming Pak
Lighting design, Stéfane Perraud
Stage design, Erik Flatmo
Sound design, Trajal Harrell
Costumes, Trajal Harrell et les interprètes
Dramaturgy, Gérard Mayen
In coproduction with Festival Montpellier Danse ; Festival d’Automne à Paris ; Les Spectacles vivants – Centre Pompidou ; Hau Hebbel am Ufer (Berlin) ; théâtre Garonne – Scène européenne (Toulouse) ; Walker Arts Center-Minneapolis ; New York Live Arts ; King’s Fountain // In partnership with Les Spectacles vivants – Centre Pompidou ; Festival d’Automne à Paris // With support from French-US Exchange in Dance, Creative Capital, New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Dance Project, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts
First performance on 25 June 2015 at Festival Montpellier Danse
The Ghost of Montpellier Meets the Samurai. It might just as easily be the name of a Japanese legend, the title of a kung-fu film - or that of a piece by Trajal Harrell... In the hands of the choreographer behind Twenty Looks or Paris is Burning at The Judson Church - a series in fivesizes from (XS)to (XL), which cross-referenced postmodern dance with voguing - this title corresponds to a work in which the story of dance, mythical constructions, pop culture, energy and inner turmoil of those drawn to voguing are all jumbled together in a mass of explosive ingredients, hurled onto the stage. The ghost of this new work is the choreographer Dominique Bagouet, who passed away in 1992, and whose works such as So Schnell reshaped the landscape of French dance. The samurai is Tatsumi Hijikata, one of the founders of Butoh - that “dance of darkness”, and all its violent contrasts, born from the collision between Japanese theatrical tradition and German expressionist dance. Between the two, by their sides, is the figure of Ellen Stewart - the founder of New York’s LaMama avant-garde theatre.
In a distinctly non-hagiographical approach, Trajal Harrell takes up these lives as near-legendary figures, in order to investigate what is at stake in the process of artistic creation: “why does art exist? What drives certain individuals to put all their energy into their art?”. In doing so, he brings us a fresh, paradoxical look at relationships between different choreographic cultures - taking in all the various rebounds, misunderstandings, and comings and goings from one continent, and from one scene, to another. Through song, snatches of dialogue, and truly electric dance, he distills these choreographic biographies - with voguing acting as the driving force behind the desires, areas of darkness, and passion of these artists who have given their all for art.
October 17th 2015, 14h
Free Entrance
Mona Bismarck American Center
34 avenue de New York - 75116 Paris
Reservation : rsvp@monabismarck.org
Artist Talk: Trajal Harrell
In The Ghost of Montpellier Meets the Samurai, celebrated American choreographer Trajal Harrell investigates the crucial questions at the heart of artistic creation, addressing two legendary figures of contemporary dance Dominique Bagouet (the ghost) and Tatsumi Hijikata (the samurai). Harrell will speak at the Mona Bismarck American Center about the driving forces behind this piece.
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