Boris Charmatz

SOMNOLE

Archive 2021
Dance
1/3

Choreography and performed by, Boris Charmatz
Choreographic assistant, Magali Caillet-Gajan
Lighting, Yves Godin
Costumes collaboration, Marion Regnier
Vocal work, Dalila Khatir
With advices from Bertrand Causse and Médéric Collignon
Musical inspirations J.S. Bach, A. Vivaldi, B. Eilish, La Panthère Rose, J. Kosma, E. Morricone, chants d'oiseaux, G.F. Haendel, Stormy Weather... Liste complète disponible sur borischarmatz.org
Stage manager, Fabrice Le Fur
Lighting management, Germain Fourvel
Executive manager [terrain], Hélène Joly
Production management, Lucas Chardon, Martina Hochmuth
Production staff, Florentine Busson, Briac Geffrault

A coproduction by Festival d’Automne à Paris and MC93 – Maison de la Culture de Seine-Saint-Denis.
Production and distribution by terrain
A coproduction by MC93 – Maison de la Culture de Seine-Saint-Denis sont coproducteurs de ce spectacle.
Production et diffusion, [terrain]
Coproduction Opéra de Lille ; Bonlieu scène nationale Annecy ; Le phénix, scène nationale de Valenciennes – pôle européen de création ; International Arts Festival REGARDING… ; Teatro Municipal do Porto ; Festival de Marseille ; Scène nationale d’Orléans ; MC93 – Maison de la Culture de Seine-Saint-Denis (Bobigny) ; Charleroi Danse – Centre chorégraphique de Wallonie-Bruxelles ; Helsinki Festival ; Pavillon ADC ; Festival d’Automne à Paris
With support from Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels
With the Jeune Théâtre national 
Within the framework of Atelier en résidence / Lafayette Anticipations – Fondation d'entreprise Lafayette
Thanks to Alban Moraud, Mette Ingvartsen Charmatz, Xenia Ingvartsen Charmatz

After a series of group pieces and collective events, Boris Charmatz returns to the minimal form of the solo in a pared-down mental choreography, accompanied only by a faint whistle. A whistled dance which transports familiar melodies and concretions of gestures lying dormant.

In this show, the act of whistling alone, for yourself, “as if it were the outline of a stable centre at the centre of chaos” models movement at the very moment the out-breath escapes from our lips. It allows us to invent a world in expansion – a land of familiar ritornellos from which gestures spring forth. The performer whistles a note, concocts a melody, then another – like an ephemeral cartography of a frame of mind. Here, following on from infini, a piece characterised by its overflowing orality, in which the uttering of figures was transmitted from one body to the next, Boris Charmatz opts for a radical lessening of meaning and physical activity. In SOMNOLE, the exhaled air of whistling joins up with the appearance of a movement, forming a fragile bond of dance and music. As the music builds, with its mixtures and ruptures, different states of liaison develop between whistling and the dynamic of the gesture – whether it be slowed-down, haltering, somnolent or sharp. Like a body in search of respite, Boris Charmatz invents an insomniac form of dance, a refuge of choruses and rhythms on the frontier between daydreams and dark reverie.

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.

Église Saint-Eustache
septembersept 20

Music
Buy tickets

Das atmende Klarsein marked the last of Luigi Nono's different styles. In it, the Venetian master exalts the demise of our certainties, a way new of listening, made up of silences and fragile, unique sounds, and an attention to space and the possible. A possible which is always going somewhere and in which song equates to the existence.

Église Saint-Eustache
octoberoct 7 – 18

Clara Iannotta, Chris Swithinbank
I listen to the inward through my bones

Music Portrait
Free

Clara Iannotta's project is to listen to the city and its various life-forms, in a space, that of a church, which a priori preserves those inside from the noises outside. She does so by means of an electronic installation designed for the acoustics of the Church of Saint-Eustache, a building with a rich musical tradition, ranging from from Rameau to Berlioz.

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
Buy tickets

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.

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
Buy tickets

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
Buy tickets

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
Buy tickets

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.