Jérôme Bel

Danses pour une actrice (Valérie Dréville)

Archive 2020
Dance
1/2

Concept, Jérôme Bel
With Valérie Dréville
Artistic direction and executive producer, Rebecca Lasselin
Administration, Sandro Grando
Produced by R.B. Jérôme Bel (Paris)
Coproduced by ; R.B. Jérôme Bel (Paris) ; Théâtre Vidy-Lausanne ; MC93 – Maison de la Culture de Seine-Saint-Denis (Bobigny) ; La Commune centre dramatique national d’Aubervilliers ; and Festival d’Automne à Paris
In association with MC93 – Maison de la Culture de Seine-Saint-Denis (Bobigny) ; and Festival d’Automne à Paris for performances at MC93 – Maison de la Culture de Seine-Saint-Denis (Bobigny)
In association with La Commune centre dramatique national d’Aubervilliers ; and Festival d’Automne à Paris for performances at La Commune centre dramatique national d’Aubervilliers
www.jeromebel.frFor ecological reasons, R.B/ Jérôme Bel company doesn't travel by plane anymore.

In Jérôme Bel’s invitation to Valérie Dréville to apply her own ways working to that of dance, the choreographer undertakes a shift which renews its performativity. Choreographic writing gives way to the imaginary world of the actress, conferring to the performance all the richness of her experience.

A firm believer in the idea that certain choreographies are as eloquent and full of meaning as the major dramatic works, Jérôme Bel has asked an actress, Valérie Dréville, to perform dance solos taken from the repertory of three choreographic modernities (German, American and Japanese). The interpretation will thus be defined by this meeting point between the practices of dance and theatre, choreography and language. Rather than setting out to imitate the work of the female dancer, Valérie Dréville tackles the partition via the means of theatre, thereby abandoning all the various forms of formalism which habitually prevail in dance in favour of the work of her own imagination. The strength of her performance thus stems from her ability to assimilate a form of knowledge or skill in order to transform it into various revelatory states of body and mind. This removal of form in favour of meaning modifies in a profound way the conditions for creating a solo dance piece, such as its aesthetic reception. As part of this mechanism, the expression of interiority takes pride of place over concerns related to appearances, and experience supplants representation, to the extent that the execution of this theatrical act ultimately has less to do with that of the spectacle than an event of some kind. In accordance with the choreographer’s commitment to environmentally-friendly practices, the show is available in “local” versions, adapted in different languages, such as the Dutch version featuring the actress Jolente de Keersmaeker, taking into account the singularities of each performer.

In the same place

MC93 – Maison de la Culture de Seine-Saint-Denis
septembersept 18 – 22

Soa Ratsifandrihana
Fampitaha, fampita, fampitàna

Dance

Committing moving bodies to a contemporary form of orality, Soa Ratsifandrihana, the guitarist Joël Rabesolo and performers Audrey Mérilus and Stanley Ollivier draw on their diasporic narratives and origins to tell a story they would have liked to hear or see. The three Malagasy words Fampitaha, fampita, fampitàna, meaning comparison, transmission and rivalry, form variations in which the performers slide in and out of different states and seem to follow a movement in perpetual metamorphosis.

La Commune, centre dramatique national d’Aubervilliers
septembersept 20 – 28

Carte Blanche Dream City

Carte Blanche Dream City

The multi-disciplinary Tunisian festival Dream City is moving to Aubervilliers at the joint invitation of the Festival d'Automne and La Commune, with the shared desire to make this area rustle, resonate and dream through a dozen creations by international performing and visual artists. 

La Commune, centre dramatique national d’Aubervilliers
septembersept 20 – 22

Selma & Sofiane Ouissi
BIRD

Carte Blanche Dream CityDance
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Starting with ordinary everyday gestures such as feeding, living together and getting around, Sofiane Ouissi explores our relationship with birds. Passionate about encounters and the journeys they generate, this time he delves into the relationship with another species.

La Commune, centre dramatique national d’Aubervilliers
septembersept 21 – 28

Visual arts: exhibitions and conversations

Carte Blanche Dream CityVisual arts
Free

Artists Jumana Manna and Sille Storihle, Manthia Diawara, Michael Rakowitz & Robert Chase Heishmans will be in La Commune from 20 to 28 September to present five works and invite you to take part in two conversations.
The works of Nil Yalter will be on display in the public space of Aubervilliers.

 

La Commune, centre dramatique national d’Aubervilliers
septembersept 21

Conference by Sophie Bessis
Tunisia in the turmoil of populism

Carte Blanche Dream CityConference
Free

After a decade of chaotic but richly experienced democratic apprenticeship, Tunisia found itself plunged into a new cycle of its post-colonial history from 2021 onwards. From that date onwards, Kaïs Saïed, who was democratically elected in 2019, assumed all the powers, transforming a fledgling democracy into an autocracy.

La Commune, centre dramatique national d’Aubervilliers
septembersept 27 – 28

Sammy Baloji
Missa Utica

Carte Blanche Dream CityMusic
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The first black bishop appointed by the Catholic Church should have settled in Utica, Tunisia, but never did. His story is the starting point for Sammy Baloji's work.

La Commune, centre dramatique national d’Aubervilliers
septembersept 27 – 28

Winter Family
H2-Hébron

Carte Blanche Dream CityTheatre

Winter Family is an experimental music and documentary theatre duo founded by Israeli artist Ruth Rosenthal and French musician Xavier Klaine. They play minimal, obsessive, abrasive and political music. They created H2 Hebron, their 3rd show in 2018, a documentary piece in which the transcription of nearly 500 pages of testimonies, their translation, selection and reappropriation by Winter Family are the central element and the main dramaturgical material of the show.

MC93 – Maison de la Culture de Seine-Saint-Denis
octoberoct 13

Jeanne Balibar
Les Historiennes

RépertoireTheatre

Three women return from the past thanks to three female contemporary historians who bring them back to life via three separate accounts. Here, the actress Jeanne Balibar uses them as the basis for a staged reading. Four women from today’s world take a particularly eloquent and incisive look at three emblematic female destinies.

MC93 – Maison de la Culture de Seine-Saint-Denis
novembernov 5 – 8

Nacera Belaza
La Nuée

Dance
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With a reputation for minimalist and captivating choreographies, Nacera Belaza continues the exploration of the circle and rhythm she initiated with Le Cercle (2019) and L'Onde (2021), both landmarks in her choreographic language. Following on from an initial period of creation in Brussels in May 2024, the choreographer then enlarged the creative process of La Nuée by inviting ten new performers to the stage.

La Commune, centre dramatique national d’Aubervilliers
novembernov 13 – 16

Lina Majdalanie, Rabih Mroué
Biokhraphia

Theatre Portrait
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These two one-person shows, Biokhraphia et Riding on a cloud, are an investigation into the self-portrait. In Riding on a Cloud, a man called Yasser speaks into a dictaphone, projects videos and broadcasts recordings, whilst expressing reservations about the extent to which these documents coincide with his true self. In Biokhraphia, it is Lina Majdalanie who becomes the subject of a very unusual interview.

La Commune, centre dramatique national d’Aubervilliers
novembernov 13 – 16

Rabih Mroué
Riding on a cloud

Theatre Portrait
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These two one-person shows, Biokhraphia and Riding on a cloud, are an investigation into the self-portrait. In Riding on a Cloud, a man called Yasser speaks into a dictaphone, projects videos and broadcasts recordings, whilst expressing reservations about the extent to which these documents coincide with his true self. In Biokhraphia, it is Lina Majdalanie who becomes the subject of a very unusual interview.

MC93 – Maison de la Culture de Seine-Saint-Denis
novembernov 14 – 17

Stefan Kaegi (Rimini Protokoll)
This is not an embassy (Made in Taiwan)

TheatrePerformance
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Rimini Protokoll's roving director Stefan Kaegi takes us, in the company of three native performers and residents, to the island of Taiwan. The fictional element of this show, in which the onstage action filmed live takes us through the twists and turns of a miniature décor, points to a somewhat grotesque geopolitical reality.

MC93 – Maison de la Culture de Seine-Saint-Denis
novembernov 22 – 30

Rosana Cade, Ivor MacAskill
The Making of Pinocchio

Theatre
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Drawing upon Collodi's tale, the Cade-MacAskill duo uses theatre to investigate the little- explored realms of queer love and affection. In doing so, they tell the story of gender transition and its repercussions on the couple. The piece itself, The Making of Pinocchio, becomes a burlesque-inspired manifesto for different forms currently under construction.

Points communs – Théâtre des Louvrais
novembernov 14 – 16
Scène nationale de l'Essonne – Théâtre de l’Agora
novembernov 19 – 20
MC93 – Maison de la Culture de Seine-Saint-Denis
novembernov 29 - december – dec 29
La Merise
decemberdec 12 – 14
La Ferme du Buisson, Scène nationale – cinéma – centre d’art contemporain
decemberdec 18 – 19

Joël Pommerat
Marius

Theatre
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Inspired by the work of Marcel Pagnol, this show explores the theme of escape. Some of the actors had their first experience of theatre at the Maison centrale d'Arles prison. Marius provides audiences with a unique opportunity to discover a little-known but crucial dimension of Joël Pommerat's art.