The iconoclastic images selected by Claude Mouriéras describe with lucidity and humour the choreographer’s exasperated cry: “Adesso basta !” (Now, that’s enough!) To a music by Thierry Robin, the scenario calls on the actors/dancers of Christophe Haleb’s company, La Zouze, who find themselves directly confronted with the small estrangements of everyday life.

What do people live in an apartment, an office, a couple? Domestic disputes, collective hysteria, intimate solitude and entangled nudities parade in counterpoint to soft musics with traditional anchorings. Christophe Haleb’s search relates to the need to act and to invent an alternative to reality. In his works as in Adesso basta !, he contrasts with the stress of urban ways of life, a sort of imaginary ecosystem.

Source : Irène Filliberti

Christophe Haleb began studying classical dance in 1970 aged 6, at the Conservatoire de Vincennes. In 1979 he tried out the work and communal lifestyle of the Physical Dance Theatre - Theatre in Transition, an artists' collective, directed by actor and producer Richard Thomas Cianci, in Avignon.

Up until 1982 he took part in workshops with Twyla Tharp in Châteauvallon, Odile Duboc in Aix-en-Provence, Peter Goss and Dominique Bagouet in Montpellier. In Marseilles he took up classical dance training again with Isabelle and Gérard Thaillade (Roland Petit). During his first period of study in New York in the summer of 1982, he was awarded a bursary to study at the Lester Horton Studio with Milton Myers. He also took lessons with Christopher Pilafian - Jennifer Muller Company, Douglas Wassel of the American Ballet, Patricia Soriero (Steps Studio) and Ann Reinking (Bob Foss).  He discovered modern dance through the St Mark's Church workshops. On his return to Marseilles, he followed the teaching of Michelle Mottet (Maurice Béjart). With Anne Koren and Lisa Nelson, he experimented with work on perception and movement. The practice of the Feldenkrais Method and Body-Mind Centering ® as well as sessions of contact dance improvisation with Gilles Musard, Mark Tompkins and Steve Paxton, nourished his relationship with movement. From 1983 onwards, he was a performer for Rui Horta, Anne Dreyfus, Andy Degroat, Angelin Preljocaj, Daniel Larrieu and François Verret, before founding his own company La Zouze in 1993.

Among his recent works: Shoe in modern time and De-camping (Dé-camper), in situ creations in the display windows of the Printemps de la Mode shop in Paris (2006), the solo Yes, Yes, Yes written for Isabelle Boutrois (2004), Strata and Spheres (Strates et Sphères) at the Théâtre National de Chaillot (2003), Idyllique, produced at the Théâtre de la Ville – Les Abbesses (2001)... In 2008-2009 he worked on Evelyne House of Shame, a project of soirées based on the concept of the salon and art cabaret which invite the audience to get involved and to temporarily take over architectural heritage sites in Marseilles, and Marseilles Diversions (Déviations Marseillaises), a chronical of relationships across the city of Marseilles.

Alongside the creation of his shows, the company also orients its work towards the crossover of disciplines and runs various projects in collaboration with actors, singers, musicians (electronic music), plastic artists, film and video producers, photographers, architects and sociologists. For him, the field of choreography extends beyond that of dance.

Further information

www.lazouze.com

Updating: November 2010

Based on a simple principle, in the continuity of the collection Une Danse, le temps d'une chanson, Patrice Nezan proposes a series of seven short films, each bringing together a choreographer and a director. In these “choreogra-films”, music imprints its duration and atmosphere on each of the choreographic universes. Journeys to ephemeral worlds, the strangeness of which is due as much to the quality of the images as to the situations imagined.

It understands : Adesso basta !, Besame Mucho, Daïté, Erè mèla mèla, Garota de Ipanema, La Habanera, Ya Rayah.