Boris Charmatz
10000 gestes
© Alighiero Boetti, Tutto (1987-1988) (détail) © Alighiero Boetti by DACS/ADAGP 2017 ©
© © Tristram Kenton ©
© © Tristram Kenton ©
Choreography, Boris Charmatz
for 24 dancers
With Djino Alolo Sabin, Salka Ardal Rosengren, Or Avishay, Régis Badel, Jessica Batut, Nadia Beugré, Alina Bilokon, Nuno Bizarro, Matthieu Burner, Dimitri Chamblas, Olga Dukhovnaya, Sidonie Duret, Bryana Fritz, Kerem Gelebek, Alexis Hedouin, Rémy Héritier, Samuel Lefeuvre, Johanna-Elisa Lemke, Noé Pellencin, Maud Le Pladec, Mani Mungai, Jolie Ngemi, Solene Wachter, Frank Willens
Assistant choreography, Magali Caillet-Gajan
Lighting, Yves Godin
Costumes, Jean-Paul Lespagnard
Vocal work, Dalila Khatir
Stage management, Fabrice Le Fur
Sound management, Mathieu Morel
Dresser, Marion Régnier
Production directors, Sandra Neuveut, Martina Hochmuth, and Amélie-Anne Chapelain
Music, Requiem en ré mineur K.626 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791),with Orchestre Philharmonique de Vienne, direction Herbert von Karajan, recorded in Musikverein (Vienne) in 1986 (1987 Polydor International GmbH, Hambourg) ; recordings at the Mayfield's former station, Manchester, by Mathieu Morel
A Musée de la danse production / Centre chorégraphique national de Rennes et de Bretagne-Direction : Boris Charmatz // Co-produced by Volksbühne (Berlin) ; Manchester International Festival (MIF) ; Théâtre National de Bretagne – Centre Européen Théâtral et Chorégraphique (Rennes) ; Wiener Festwochen ; Sadler’s Wells (London) ; Taipei Performing Arts Center ; Chaillot – Théâtre national de la Danse (Paris) ; Festival d’Automne à Paris // In association with Chaillot – Théâtre national de la Danse (Paris) ; and Festival d’Automne à Paris // With support from Adami // First performed on 14th September 2017 at the Volksbühne (Berlin) // With thanks to Olivier Renouf, Charleroi Danses - Centre chorégraphique de la Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles, P.A.R.T.S., Archivio Alighiero Boetti and Fondazione Alighiero e Boetti; Chiara Oliveri Bertola / Castello di Rivoli Museo d'Arte Contemporanea
First performed on the 14th September 2017 at the Volksbühne (Berlin)
Following on from the unbridled orality of danse de nuit (2016), Boris Charmatz returns to the perception-based questions at the origin of his earlier work Levée des conflits (2010). In this dance utopia in which no gesture is ever repeated, he creates an uninterrupted torrent of gestures, interspersed with trembling and spasms. A sensory and choreographic challenge that saturates our perception space.
We can invent one gesture, two gestures or three gestures, no problem. But how on earth can we invent ten thousand gestures? By experimenting with the limits of what makes a gesture - what distinguishes the movement of an arm or a leg from another - Boris Charmatz once again subjects choreography to a frontier, signified, in the title, in the form of a challenge. What can a mass of bodies engaged in carrying out such a huge quantity of non-repeated gestures in an increasingly saturated playing space actually look like? A sculpture? A living installation? A ghost-like choreography? As in Levée des conflits, at the origin of 10 000 gestes is the horizon of a perception-based fantasy, namely that of creating a visual, almost subliminal illusion using the resources of choreographic art. The idea is to create a flowing form in which the performers are both more and less than the sum total of their bodies. They become atoms, subject to the laws acting upon them, a pure succession of states and variations of intensity. In this dance mirage, the profusion of bodies seeks to attain a state constant transformation, in which physical matter fights against its own dissolution. Amidst this ephemeral torrent racked with contractions, however, we encounter the desire to make a mark of some sort: of something which remains.
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