An extract remodelled by Le Terrain vague II (Nice, Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur), artistic manager Claudine Laville, as part of the “Danse en amateur et répertoire” programme (2017/2018) (a programme created to assist and promote amateur dancing).

Transmission by Christine Caradec.

Presented on 26 May 2018, Les 2 Scènes, Théâtre Ledoux, Besançon.

The piece when it was created

First part of the  volet du triptych Atavisms

Firstly produced on 26 January 1936 at the Guild Theatre in New York

Choreography: Charles Weidman

Piece for 21 performers :  Laetitia Ide, Katherine Manning, Ada Korvin, Katherine Litz, Béatrice Seckler, Joan Levy, Sybil Shearer, Edith Orcutt, Miriam Krakovsky, Louise Allen, Lily Verne, José Limón, William Matons, Kenneth Bostock,

Georges Bockman, Jerry Davidson, Maurice Gilbert, Harry Coble, Bill Bales, Ezra Friedman, Joseph Belsky

Music: Lehman Engel 

Original duration: 7 min. 30

The group 

Le Terrain vague II (Nice, Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur)

The group is made up of amateur dancers aged 15 to 65, hailing from a variety of backgrounds such as jazz, contemporary and classical dance. The group took shape in 2010 in the course of encounters between dancers during workshops, classes, courses and performances in public places and shows. 

The project

Some dancers in the group had already had the opportunity to discover German modern dance through the recreation of Der Titan, by Rudolf Laban, and wished to further their knowledge and practice of dance of this period through the universe of a new choreographer, another technique, another philosophical and political positioning, and another continent. The theme of the work (the portrait of a vicious community, mass hysteria, the rejection and condemnation of others) is timeless and calls for a fresh reading in phase with contemporary society. This revival is also an opportunity to spotlight this choreographer who, while little known, is however a pioneer of modern dance in the USA. 

(1901-1975)
An American dancer, choreographer and teacher, Charles Weidman trained at the Denishawn School before becoming the main collaborator of Doris Humphrey, with whom he set up a school of dance. Together, they contributed to the teaching and creation of modern dance in the USA. Both a mime and a humorist, Charles Weidman adapted Doris Humphrey’s principles to male dancing. He set up his own school in 1945, and his company in 1948. 

Film director, Ivan Chaumeille, has worked with choreographer Dominique Brun a long time, most notably in the production of + One (2014), a creative documentary scheduled as part of the festival “Vidéodanse”, in the editing of which Rafaël Gubitsch participated; he filmed and edited two versions of Afternoon of a faun, choreographed by Vaslav Nijinski for the film Le Faune -un film ou la fabrique de l’archive. He also carried out interviews, and devised and formulated the ROM and video dimensions of the DVD (2007). He shot video sequences for the show Medea-Stimmen by Virginie Mirbeau, created at Festival Les Météores CNN du Havre (2008). With a background in philosophy, he produced a creative documentary entitled Avec François Châtelet, un voyage différentiel (2010) for the collection “À Contre-temps” in co-production with Groupe Galactica, Mosaïque films and Canal 15.