François Chaignaud / Akaji Maro
GOLD SHOWER
© © ADELAP ©
© © ADELAP ©
Conceived and performed by François Chaignaud, and Akaji Maro
Costumes, Romain Brau, Cédrick Debeuf, and Kyoko Domoto
Omote (Japanese theater masks), Seitaro Ozu
Lighting design, Abigail Fowler
Set design, François Chaignaud, Abigail Fowler, Akaji Maro
Sound, Caroline Mas
Production Vlovajob Pru
A coproduction between Pôle européen de création - Ministère de la Culture/Maison de la Danse en soutien à la Biennale de la danse de Lyon ; Maison de la musique de Nanterre scène conventionnée ; Bonlieu scène nationale Annecy ; Charleroi danse – Centre Chorégraphique de la Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles ; Chaillot – Théâtre national de la Danse (Paris) ; Le Quartz – scène nationale de Brest ; Teatro Municipal do Porto ; manège – Scène Nationale – Reims ; Setagaya Public Theatre (Tokyo) ; Conseil Régional Auvergne Rhône-Alpes ; Maison de la musique de Nanterre ; Festival d’Automne à Paris
In association with Maison de la musique de Nanterre ; Nanterre-Amandiers, centre dramatique national ; Festival d’Automne à Paris
With the support of Fondation pour l’étude de la langue et de la civilisation japonaises sous l’égide de la Fondation de France
With the support of Regard du Cygne, Paris ; La Villette - Paris ; Nanterre-Amandiers, centre dramatique national
With the participation of Jeune théâtre National
The encounter between the pioneer of butoh and one of the most unique choreographers of the French dance scene promises to be both exquisite and explosive in equal measure. In a sublime and perverse parade, in which both epicenity and excess reign supreme, dance becomes ritual, and the flesh a form of revolt.
Akaji Maro, a dancer of emptiness and the grotesque, succeeds, with François Chaignaud, a performer and singer of multiple talents, in bringing about a common metamorphosis which transcends the seemingly insurmountable barriers of body, age, language, and tradition. In this shared dance, they find the means of confronting their different artistic forms and sensitivities, and of continually reinventing them, providing the structure for interplay between influences and transmissions which throw into disarray, irrevocably, both gender and the story. In François Chaignaud, Akaji Maro sees “eternity in the instant, the genealogy of vice and immortality, the eroticism of the ebb and flow of blood”. A flesh and blood in rebellion from which he proceeds, a pagan-like priest, to the crowning. The dance that they invent together stems from the ritualistic. Bodies come into contact and penetrate each other, mixing both voice and bodily fluid. Their two bodies, movingly interdependently within the rhythmic unity, alternate between weak and strong, and become the living demonstration of a vital strength, which is proportional – or disproportional – to their extravagance. Their initiatory dance amounts to bodily play in its purest form, in which idiocy and perversion dominate, and in which the present of the onstage experience also enables us to catch a glimpse of humanity. In this incandescent GOLDEN SHOWER, the image of which is not entirely dissimilar to Danaë’s progenitor golden rain, the urophilia fetish and golden powder of the kimpun-show, the burlesque cabaret act initiated by Akaji Maro, seriousness morphs into frivolity and artifice reinvents bodies.
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Estimated running time: 1h
See also
François Chaignaud, Geoffroy Jourdain In absentia
Following on from t u m u l u s, François Chaignaud and Geoffroy Jourdain continue their exploration of Renaissance funeral chants, putting the audience at the very heart of the experience. This proximity means that the slightest breath, drop of sweat, or movement become sensory matter in which the celestial and the earthly intertwine.
François Chaignaud Petites joueuses
The Festival d'Automne continues, for the third year in a row, its partnership with the Louvre Museum. Together, they have been building up a collection of new contemporary performances dedicated to the museum and its works. On the occasion of the 'Figures du fou. Du Moyen âge aux romantiques' exhibition, which explores the subversive value of the foolish or the nonsensical in medieval society, the dancer and choreographer François Chaignaud brings us Petites joueuses. In this piece, an immersive and uninterrupted journey through the medieval Louvre, mutant and resonant creatures take over its fortifications, giving rise to a somewhat disturbing carnival.