A solo blending physicality and dance, the veracity of a documentary and the poetry of the spoken word: an intimate experience to be shared.

One day, Rita Quaglia saw a collective choreographic performance that impacted her profoundly and so she decided to produce her own experience as a spectator.

For a while, she looked for funding, investigated, collected personal accounts from most of the performers, assembled partitions and, more than anything else, avoided seeing the performance again so that she could keep her initial elusive impression in mind. With sincerity and sensitivity, Rita Quaglia recounts, plays and creats her encounter with this performance on the stage; a performance that, given her minimalistic evocations, we discover very little about. The spoken word is present, the body too, but they dialogue and evolve elsewhere, in another scenic space that is now limitless, a space that depicts the past. Secret reminiscences become moments for sharing.

This highly-particular project kindles curiosity, initiates an as-yet-unknown register and adds substance to a reflection on dance which, far from being cynical, faces sensitivity courageously.

“This scaled-down theory of reinterpretation, by blending the form of a documentary and that of a performance, wishes to address the challenge of “monodic” writing that adequately conjures up a piece of work that was created for several performers and, simultaneously, wishes to question the different types of relationships that we, as performers, spectators and authors, entertain when faced with creation. Occupy the scenic space with the dual attitude of performer and spectator, make the range of the regard and the range of the performance a single space, transmit an intense spectator experience and, simultaneously, a performer's desire, the essence of this project swings between these three challenges.”

Rita Quaglia

Updating: June 2012

Rita Quaglia, who was born in Naples, discovered contemporary dance in France during the 80s, where she began her career as a performing artist with Régine Chopinot. In 1988, she joined the DM Studio, directed by Bernardo Montet and Catherine Diverrès. In 1995, she joined Mathilde Monnier at the Centre chorégraphique national (National Choreography Centre) in Montpellier, where she participated in all her creations until 1999. In 2003, she choreographed “Solo” in partnership with François Verret, commissioned by the SACD (Society of Dramatic Authors and Composers) and the Avignon Festival.

The same year, Francesca Lattuada offered her the opportunity to create “Ostinato, partition pour une danseuse seule”(Ostinato, partition for a single dancer). In 2004, she joined ranks with Catherine Diverrès once again who wished to transmit her emblematic “Stance II” solo to her (presented at the CND from 23 to 25 May 2012 during the Rencontres chorégraphiques internationales (International Choreographic Encounters) of Seine-Saint-Denis, and performed by Carole Gomes).

Concurrently to her career as a performer, she has worked with Lluis Ayet since 1990, producing and performing a host of duo and group works. They founded the Acta Association together in 1997.

In 2006, they were honoured by the Fondation Beaumarchais for their creation “Bleu de Terre Rouge”, a choreographic project that was initiated in Jerusalem hand-in-hand with the Israeli photographer, Didier Ben Loulou.

Updated: June 2012

Since 2001, the National Center for Dance (CND) has been making recordings of its shows and educational programming and has created resources from these filmed performances (interviews, danced conferences, meetings with artists, demonstrations, major lessons, symposia specialized, thematic arrangements, etc.).