Lointain is an outmoded and contemplative piece.
The subject of study in this piece is musical emotion…
How can one create osmosis between the abstract structure of a choreographic project and the “romanticism” of a musical score?
The narrative form of the music serves as a catalyst, a form of emotional provocation as in film: it’s the ear that makes us see.
Playing with theatrical illusion and the apparent “poverty” of its materials, Lointain imposes itself as a foveal piece where all elements are unidirectional: light sources, mono-sound diffusion, dance, singular costumes.
The choice to work from act 2 scene 2 of Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde for a male-female duet came to me like a gamble: Tristan and Isolde do not “consummate” their love. They are in the living flux of becoming and of organic fulfilment, of progressive revelation.
The musical structure of the opera is surprising; its entire architecture is constructed around the search for a note which will only become perceptible at the moment of Isolde’s death… An abstract project which underlies the work; and there again, a gamble.
The work of the body emerges from forty positions taken by the dancers within the everyday space of an apartment, then these positions are decontextualized and reinvented in an empty place; but the layout of the apartment (its blueprint) is preserved, allowing an imaginary spatial disposition to be retained… Following this, a sort of labyrinth is set up in which the two bodies move maintaining a very close space between the two dancers to procure a “sympathetic proximity” in the spectator.  There’s a sort of impossibility of contact, though the bodies are always on the edge of brushing against each other.

Source : CCN Caen, Normandy

Lointain is an outmoded and contemplative piece.

The subject of study in this piece is musical emotion… 

How can one create osmosis between the abstract structure of a choreographic project and the “romanticism” of a musical score?

The narrative form of the music serves as a catalyst, a form of emotional provocation as in film: it’s the ear that makes us see.

Playing with theatrical illusion and the apparent “poverty” of its materials, Lointain imposes itself as a foveal piece where all elements are unidirectional: light sources, mono-sound diffusion, dance, singular costumes.

The choice to work from act 2 scene 2 of Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde for a male-female duet came to me like a gamble: Tristan and Isolde do not “consummate” their love. They are in the living flux of becoming and of organic fulfilment, of progressive revelation.

The musical structure of the opera is surprising; its entire architecture is constructed around the search for a note which will only become perceptible at the moment of Isolde’s death… An abstract project which underlies the work; and there again, a gamble.

The work of the body emerges from forty positions taken by the dancers within the everyday space of an apartment, then these positions are decontextualized and reinvented in an empty place; but the layout of the apartment (its blueprint) is preserved, allowing an imaginary spatial disposition to be retained… Following this, a sort of labyrinth is set up in which the two bodies move maintaining a very close space between the two dancers to procure a “sympathetic proximity” in the spectator.  There’s a sort of impossibility of contact, though the bodies are always on the edge of brushing against each other.

Alban Richard discovered contemporary dance alongside his music and literature studies. As a performer, he went on to work for Odile Duboc, Christine Gaigg, Olga de Soto and Rosalind Crisp among others.

In 2000, he founded Ensemble L’Abrupt and built up a repertoire of some thirty pieces. His writing is process-based, structured by several partitions – for dance, music, light and costumes.

Ensemble L’Abrupt has done residencies at numerous theatres: Théâtre de Vanves, Centre National de la Danse de Pantin, Forum du Blanc-Mesnil, Théâtre Louis Aragon in Tremblay-en-France, Scène nationale d’Orléans, Le Prisme centre for artistic development in Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, Théâtre National de Chaillot, Théâtre Paul Eluard (TPE) in Bezons and Théâtre 71, Scène nationale de Malakoff.

Alban Richard has developed numerous collaborations with artists from the music world, including the Alla francesca ensemble, Les Talens Lyriques, Les Percussions de Strasbourg, the Instant Donné and Alternance ensembles, IRCAM, and the composers Laurent Perrier, Raphael Cendo, Jérôme Combier, Robin Leduc, Erwan Keravec and Arnaud Rebotini.

He is also a commissioned artist. In recent years, his installation-performances have been displayed at the Museum of Modern Art of the City of Paris, the Louvre, the Quai Branly Museum, the Guimet Museum and the Abu Dhabi Art Fair.

In September 2015, Alban Richard was appointed as artistic director of the Centre chorégraphique national de Caen en Normandie.

More information : https://ccncn.eu/english/

Initiated to music and cinema by his two older brothers Nicolas Simon quickly becomes a cinephile and begins to direct short films as a teenager.

After a training in audiovisual professions at ESRA Bretagne, where he directed two short films in 16 millimeters, he met Emmanuelle Vo-Dinh in 2004 and discovered contemporary dance. In 2008, he directed « Making Rainbow », which traces the five months of creation of the first edition of the show "Rainbow" in Rennes.

He then co-directed «Le Grand Éléphant - l’Aventure des Constructeurs» an incursion of nearly two years in the premises of the association "The Machine" to follow with its builders the birth of the Grand Elephant Island of Nantes .

While continuing to work regularly with many choreographers like Alban Richard or Daniel Dobbels, he has since made several documentaries, commercials or video clips as well as three seasons of the series « La Tête de l’Emploi » for France 3.

A place for dance open to everyone, where people come to see, dance and talk.

The centre chorégraphique national de Caen en Normandie is a space of shared projects that questions the world in which we live, a receptive place where dance is at the heart of an artistic, political and civic-minded vision. It is a centre for the creation, hosting, production and dissemination of choreographic works, a hub that acts as a resource for training and research. It is a place shared with artists, residents, associations and cultural institutions, a place open to artistic creation and the contemporary repertoire.

Awakening curiosity, stimulating the desire for knowledge, opening up to differences, sharing real artistic, intellectual and human experiences – these are the new challenges identified by Alban Richard for the centre chorégraphique national de Caen en Normandie.

Associated artists 2016 - 2018: 

Ola Maciejewska and Mélanie Perrier (choreographers)

Companion artists 2016 - 2019: 

Jérôme Combier (composer), Christine Gaigg, Mickaël Phelippeau (choreographers) and Phia Ménard (director)

https://ccncn.eu/english
 

https://ccncn.eu/evenement/lointain/