Choreography by Carolyn Carlson
A choreographic extract remodelled by the group A Corps Danse (Saint-Leu-la-Forêt), artistic coordinator Claire Van Vlamertynghe, as part of the “Danse en amateur et répertoire programme” (2014) (a programme created to assist and promote amateur dancing).

The group
Set up five years ago as an outlet for the most experienced and motivated students of a dance school in the Val d’Oise, A Corps Danse brings together some ten women with an extraordinary difference in age (from eighteen to fifty-five years). The group presents its usual productions in the surrounding area and during the meetings of the Fédération française de danse. It has enjoyed experiences with the choreographers Ambra Senatore and Farid Ounchiouene, and has composed original approaches to the musics of Aperghis, and the Rite of Spring, based on Valentine Hugo’s drawings. This time, the confrontation with the demands of an already fixed choreographic writing constitutes a significant shift, both in terms of attention to detail and intensity of physical effort. 

The choreographer
Since she was taken on as a permanent soloist by the Opéra de Paris, at that time a visionary, the path taken by Carolyn Carlson, born in 1943 in the USA, has assumed the dimensions of a legend at the heart of the French choreographic landscape (and beyond, particularly through her time as the director of the Venice Biennale). She has created more than one hundred pieces, all “visual poems”. Her figures are inhabited by an incomparable sense of the flow of movement, while yet preserving an incredible accuracy of traits. The practice of writing and the plastic arts has a certain influence on her frequently meditative universe. Created in 2005 in the wake of her nomination as director of the Centre chorégraphique national de Roubaix, Inanna is Carolyn Carlson’s only work that is solely danced by women.

The artist
Followed by Carolyn Carlson, the transmission of an extract from Inanna was entrusted to Sara Orselli, the interpreter of this piece right from its creation, becoming at the same time the choreographer’s assistant. A quartet was mainly chosen, to be re-adapted in this case for nine interpreters. Sara Orselli offers them an experience closely resembling actual practice in a professional company, starting with a class directly related to the piece, followed by an improvisation aiming at recovering the intimate meaning of the gestures. The sharpness of the visual image never lets us forget the intensity of feeling. The women in A Corps Danse have experience in relationships that allows them to understand the subject of Inanna, extolling the supportive qualities of women.

California-born Carolyn Carlson defines herself first and foremost as a nomad. From San Francisco Bay to the University of Utah, from the Alwin Nikolais company in New York to Anne Béranger’s in France, from Paris Opera Ballet to Teatrodanza La Fenice in Venice, from the Théâtre de la Ville de Paris to Helsinki, from Ballet Cullberg to La Cartoucherie in Paris, from the Venice Biennale to Roubaix, Carlson is a tireless traveller, always seeking to develop and share her poetic universe.

She arrived in France in 1971 the beneficiary of Alwin Nikolais’s ideas about movement, composition and teaching. The following year, with Rituel pour un rêve mort, she wrote a poetic manifesto that defined an approach to her work that she has adhered to ever since: dance that is strongly oriented towards philosophy and spirituality. Carlson prefers the term ‘visual poetry’ to ‘choreography’ to describe her work. She creates works that express her poetic thoughts and a form of complete art within which movement occupies a special place. 

For four decades, Carlson has had significant influence and success in many European countries. She played a key role in the birth of French and Italian contemporary dance through the GRTOP (theatre research group) at Paris Opera Ballet and Teatrodanza at La Fenice.

She has created over 100 pieces, a large number of which are landmarks in the history of dance, including Density 21.5, The Year of the Horse, Blue Lady, Steppe, Maa, Signes, Writings on Water and Inanna. In 2006, her work was rewarded with the first ever Golden Lion given to a choreographer by the Venice Biennale.

Nowadays, Carolyn Carlson is director of two organisations: the Atelier de Paris-Carolyn Carlson, an international centre for masterclasses, residencies and creating new works, which she founded in 1999 and the National Choreographic Centre Roubaix Nord-Pas de Calais until December 2013, which produces and tours shows all over the world.

More information: en.carolyn-carlson.com

From live stage images to life in images, the  director and video artist Karim Zeriahen seems to have found the  shortest way. Since the beginning of the 90s, when he worked in close  relationship with choreographer Philippe Decouflé, he learned how to put  the art of stage in motion, contemporary dance most of the time. Karim  Zeriahen then starts a fruitful collaboration with Montpellier based  choreographer Mathilde Monnier. Stop, Videlilah, day of night, short  films adapted from her stage creations. Each time, Karim Zeriahen's   camera takes over the place with movement, the body language is not  frozen but magnified. Choreographer Herman Diephuis also joins this  gallery of dancing portraits. Documentaries on figures such like Albert  Maysles or Hubert de Givenchy and from Joe Dalessandro to Paul  Morrissey, he sets a signature, a camera always in action with  confidence.

Today the director goes further with a new  project and tracks the subtle movements of the body language beyond the  physical appearance. A collection of living portraits as unique pièces  reminding us of the master portraitists of renaissance. These living  natures consists in filming the subject in a certain amount of time,  almost still, with signs of respiration, eye blinks, as if it were  posing for a painting. They are then displayed on a flat screen with a  memory card. With this collection starting, Karim Zeriahen, with his  documentary and artist vision, interrogates himself about the virtual  world filled with images. By taking a pause, and his models with him, he  questions the way we look at things, the way we look at life.

Source: Philippe Noisette 

En savoir plus: www.karimzeriahen.com

Amateur Dance and Repertory is a companion program to amateur practice beyond the dance class and the technical learning phase. Intended for groups of amateur dancers, it opens a space of sharing for those who wish to deepen a practice and a knowledge of the dance in relation to its history.

Laurent Barré
Head of Research and Choreographic Directories
Anne-Christine Waibel
Research Assistant and Choreographic Directories
+33 (0)1 41 83 43 96
danse-amateur-repertoire@cnd.fr

Source: CN D

More information: https://www.cnd.fr/en/page/323-danse-en-amateur-et-repertoire-grant-programme