If the music is imposing, if it literally lays down the law, then what choice does dance have? Follow the rhythm or attempt insurrection? In DEMOCRACY, Maud Le Pladec puts the body at the heart of the political debate for a dance “in the public interest.”

With four drummers and five dancers, Maud Le Pladec continues her work on the confrontation of music and dance. A hard-hitting confrontation that lives up to the two musical pieces: Dark Full Ride, by the American, Julia Wolfe, a pulsating composition that she compares to “a shout, an invitation to experience the unstable nature of the collective, social or political body and the contradictory forces that drive it.” The next score is by the Italian, Francesco Filidei, with the idea of bringing together two aesthetics: American post-minimalism and the European contemporary music scene. That covers the form of the work.
But DEMOCRACY goes beyond form because the stakes are in fact political. The title is not without implications, in direct reference to the ideas of philosopher Miguel Abensour in Pour une philosophie politique critique (2009). Maud Le Pladec seizes this opportunity to spotlight “the difference between the legal-political system and what we commonly call democracy, as opposed to Demos, which is a process of individualisation, an experience of the subjective. That’s what interests me. I wanted to question the balance of power between music and the group, or community. By asking what it means to be together, I wanted to ask how we revolt against authority. At what point does it become illegal? What does it mean to go against the public interest?”
So what is the connection between these questions of a political nature and the confrontation between dance and music? The choreographer sees a direct relationship: “The music is very strong, even stronger than the bodies. It’s imposing; it is the seat of power and lays down the law. How do we react? Is energy synonymous with freedom?” On stage, five dancers and four percussionists will ask the question: who leads the dance?

After completing the Ex.e.r.ce training at CCN Montpellier, Maud Le Pladec performs for several choreographers such as Georges Appaix, Emmanuelle Vo-Dinh, Loïc Touzé, Mathilde Monnier, Herman Diephuis, Mette Ingvartsen and Boris Charmatz. In 2010, she created her first piece Professor, choreographic piece for three performers on the music of Fausto Romitelli. In 2011, she created Poetry second part of a diptych around Fausto Romitelli. In 2012, she initiated To Bang on a Can, a research and creation project with three pieces and various artistic projects over four years (2012-2015). Ominous Funk and Demo, around and from the musical work of composers David Lang and Julia Wolfe, will be the starting point of this long-term project.
In 2013, Maud Le Pladec is a laureate of the Hors les Murs program at the Institut français and is conducting a research in New York on the current of post-minimalist American music. From this research came the creation of Democracy, a piece for five dancers and four drums (Ensemble TaCtuS) and Concrete (2015), a major project conceived for five dancers and nine musicians from Ensemble Ictus. In 2015, Maud Le Pladec was invited by the Lille Opera to collaborate on the creation of the 5 Xerse Opera (Cavalli / Lully, directed by Guy Cassiers, musical direction Emmanuelle Haïm / Concert d'Astrée). That same year, she initiated a new cycle of creations around the word given to women by co-creating Hunted with New York performer Okwui Okpokwasili.
Her works have been awarded with several prizes and distinctions: prize of the choreographic revelation of the Syndicate of the French critic in 2009, prize Garden of Europe in 2010, Knight of the order of arts and letters in 2015.
In 2016, she worked at the Opéra National de Paris on Eliogabalo (Francesco Cavalli) with director Thomas Jolly and under the musical direction of Leonardo Garcia Alarcon. At the same time, Maud Le Pladec is an associate artist at La Briqueterie – CDCN in the Val de Marne and continues to dance in the plays of Boris Charmatz (Levée des conflits, Enfant, Manger, 10000 gestes). Since January 2017, she succeeds Josef Nadj and directs theCentre chorégraphique national d'Orléans.
She created Moto-Cross (The Subsistances / Biennale Val de Marne), Je n'ai jamais eu envie de disparaître with the author Pierre Ducrozet as part of Concordan(s)e festival and Borderline in collaboration with the director Guy Cassiers, presented at Festival d’Avignon. In 2018, she created her last piece Twenty-Seven Perspectives, performance for 10 dancers built around Schubert’s Unfinished Symphony. In May 2020, she will create a new piece with for CCN - Ballet de Lorraine: Static shot.
Source: CCN d'Orléans
More information: https://www.ccn-orleans.com

Born in 1977, Fabien Plasson is a video director specialized in the field of performing arts (dance , music, etc).

During his studies at the Ecole Nationale des Beaux-Arts de Lyon (joined in 1995) Fabien discovered video art. He was trained by various video artists (Joel Bartoloméo Pascal Nottoli , Eric Duyckaerts , etc) .
He first experimented with the creation of installations and cinematic objects.

From 2001 to 2011, he was in charge of Ginger & Fred video Bar’s programming at La Maison de la Danse in Lyon. He discovered the choreographic field and the importance of this medium in the dissemination, mediation and pedagogical approach to dance alongside Charles Picq, who was a brilliant video director and the director of the video department at that time.

Today, Fabien Plasson is the video director at La Maison de la Danse and in charge of the video section of Numeridanse.tv, an online international  video library, and continues his creative activities, making videos of concerts, performances and also creating video sets for live performances.

Sources: Maison de la Danse ; Fabien Plasson website

More information: fabione.fr