Archive

Fiction addiction
Season 20-21

From escapism to hyperrealism, from the creative to the political, fiction has an immersive power we cannot resist. Like a great dance partner, it has the potential to sweep us away from the everyday. History has proven we are addicted to this continued reinventing of our reality through the make believe and the creation of unimaginable fabrications. 

Our 20/21 Season consists of seven new creations that celebrate dance’s invented, constructed and unreal nature. This theme allows us to weave our way from historical references to the very current, acknowledging and illustrating our insatiable thirst for the art of fiction. How relevant this subject feels in times when we are touched by such extreme circumstances that encourages us to question, and in some cases to re-imagine our existence.  

Program 1 (cancelled)
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 3 2020 AT 8:00PM
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 4 2020 AT 8:30PM

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 8 2020 AT 8:00PM

Opéra national de Lorraine (Nancy)


Two generations of choreographers with crossing, but yet very different artistic paths share in our first program of the season, Loïc Touzé with NO OCO and Maud le Pladec with STATIC SHOT. Even after the over 200 creations this company has produced throughout the years, with each new creation the “naratives” get created and the anticipation mounts  and mounts for the premier, the lights dim. What awaits? 

For Loïc Touzé’s piece NO OCO the collaborative process is utterly intertwined with the final form. Loïc plunges into the hollow of a studio - a place of ritual of study of heightened sensibilities. In close dialog with the dancers he explores how a gesture becomes the collective experience, harvesting the rhythm that allows the passage of movement to dance. Stepping into the world of Maud Le Pladec is to enter an intense place ceaseless in its corporeal and choreographic research. For STATIC SHOT she explores a cinematographic form that uses a fixed frame shot, in which movement and what is seen never stops. Exploring the notion of pleasure and ecstasy the performers bodies are plunged into a sort of continued state of climax.

Program 2 (postponed)
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 10 2021 AT 8:00PM
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 11 2021 AT 8:00PM
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 12 2021 AT 8:00PM
SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 14 2020 AT 3:00PM
New dates :
THURSDAY, MAY 20 2021
FRIDAY, MAY 21 2021
TUESDAY, MAY 25 2021
WEDNESDAY, MAY 26 2021

THURSDAY, MAY 27 2021

Opéra national de Lorraine (Nancy)


In 1954 Yves Klein proposed a ballet entitled, “LA GUERRE” (de la ligne et de la couleur)  – “The War” – (between line and colour). Although the manuscript is incomplete and was never staged, it had some clear musical, visual, and scenic intentions; ones that reflected a moment in history and yet still continue to be extremely relevant. On paper La Guerre was a grandiose, scenic manifestation of his physical and performative reflections on his art’s immateriality. Klein was a boundless creative energy, great influencer and participating member of the ZERO group. He was referred to as a modern mystic, and creator of air architecture and whose fanciful ideas even led him to his iconic leap into the void. Because of his energetic physicality, in his art practice as well through his Judo training, and his interest in the ephemeral, the fact that he proposed a “ballet” seems like a clear continuation of his creativity.

Air – Condition takes inspiration from Klein, animating ideas and concepts of the immaterial ephemeral experience he was so passionate about. There is a current and pressing relevance in the subject of the immaterial in light of the current state of our society. How are we engaging with our environment? How do we make visible the currents, vibrations and colours of our atmosphere in the search of a “less” material world? Choreographers Petter Jacobsson and Thomas Caley together with collaborating artist Tomás Saraceno, set to l'île Re-Sonante by Eliane Radigue, want to make visual the resonating vibrations that surround us daily. Saraceno’s work has throughout his career questioned how we may inhabit the “air”, through his interest to remove our dependence on fossil fuels to the intricate systems of spider web construction. In this we can see a heritage of ideas and concepts passed down from Klein and his generation. Air – condition is a new creation that re-imagines questions posed by Yves Klein in 1954. What further sensibilities lie out there in the void? Let's take the leap and find out. The project is in collaboration with the Centre Pompidou-Metz and their exhibition Le c
iel comme atelier – the sky as atelier.

Program 3 (postponed)
TUESDAY, MAY 25 2021 AT 8:00PM
WEDNESDAY, MAY 26 2021 AT 8:00PM

THURSDAY, MAY 27 2021 AT 8:00PM

Opéra national de Lorraine (Nancy)


Indicative of the 1920’s, Les Ballet Suédois was a ballet company that could equally be seen as an art project, full of enthusiasm, optimism for the future and social discourse. During just five short years they created over twenty works collaborating with a myriad of prominent visual artists and composers. What we hope to capture is this almost frenetic interest in contemporary ideas. In 2014, Petter Jacobsson and Thomas Caley already made their first research into the Ballet’s rich past with Relâche. For this new encounter they have decided to celebrate the Les Ballet Suédois’s centennial.
The focus of this “soirée” is not in the reconstruction of original works but in creations that are in dialog with the company’s body of work, history and epoch. Through referencing and certain quotations we would like to immerse the public in this very dynamic time and place – Paris in the roaring 20’s.

For the evening we are excited to invite three choreographers, Dominique Brun, Volmir Cordeiro and Latifa Laâbissi all with intense interests in the performative aspect of dance and an exacting relationship to the plasticity of space. In the tradition with this decadent epoch the evening promises to be a feast for all the senses.