Plexus comes from Late Latin and means ‘interlacing’. In its later anatomical meaning, it refers to a ‘network of nerves or vessels’. This word therefore indicates both the internal mechanism of muscular movement, nerve impulses and oxygenated blood, and the external mechanics of dance, interwoven gestures, movements, bodies or body parts. For the second time, I wanted to create the portrait of a woman, not as in a painting, a photograph or in literature – which are largely superior arts in this exercise – but by using the body and space as unique prisms, and dance as the initial view. 

Making a portrait of Kaori Ito based on stage methods was, for me, a process first and foremost. The set was not the initial idea. I decided on it after several weeks of rehearsals. For the early days, among other materials, I had a string puppet made in the image of Kaori Ito, a life-size and very realistic double. “Here is your dance teacher”, I told her. Kaori spent several hours observing it and following its movements to the letter. From this work I kept only the strings, using them throughout the entire space. The puppet remained in Kaori's body. 

From the strings I composed a tangible, living space, from which a metaphysical drama emerged, with strong links to Japan. I obviously did not want to create something 'Japanese', but Kaori comes with her own story and measures her distance from the country today. I didn't want to become distracted from this. Certain myths and recurrent motifs from Japan reappeared. On one hand was the idea of a link with ancestors and the dead. On another was the relationship with beauty that is connected to the shadows, elimination, disappearance. 'Plexus' starts from inside, from the body – this precise anatomical place, this network of nerves that is a vulnerable point – moving outside into space, a network of strings that echoes the etymology of the word plexus. 

Theatre therefore extends from the very interior, before life, to the very exterior after death, when the body disappears and becomes indistinct – where being and myth are reunited. I hoped that Kaori Ito's dance – which occasionally was so hampered by impossibility of dancing in that space that it became immobile – could give us access to this dialogue between the inner and outer world. 

After the premiere at the Théâtre Vidy-Lausanne, a journalist reminded me that Isadora Duncan had said that after the long periods of immobility she imposed upon herself, she would find that the central source of all movement was the plexus. “The solar plexus lifted the body up, towards the au-delà.” 

Source : Aurélien Bory, November 2013

Aurélien Bory was born in Colmar in 1972. His studies in physics in Strasbourg led him to the field of architectural acoustics.  He then ended his scientific curriculum in 1995.  He settled in Toulouse where he joined the creative studio at the Lido, the Circus Arts Centre. In 1998, he played in Theatre Tattoo's "L'Odyssée" directed by Mladen Materic.  In 2000 he founded Compagnie 111 with actor Olivier Alenda.  He then conceived and began the six-year-long space trilogy project, in collaboration with Phil Soltanoff, including "IJK", "Plan B" and "Plus ou moins l'infini" (More or less, Infinity).
In 2003 he directed Pierre Rigal in his first solo creation Erection, the stem of their ungoing collaboration, which also originated their second work together: Arrêts de Jeu premiered in 2006. Merging various other fields, he created "Taoub" in 2004 in Tangier with twelve moroccan acrobats, this very show will launch the international career of the Groupe acrobatique de Tanger (Tangier Acrobatic Group).  In 2008 Aurélien was the recipient of the "Créateur sans frontières" (Creator without borders)/ Radio France trophy for his international creations, notably "Les sept planches de la ruse" (The seven boards of skill) created in China in 2007 with performers from Dalian. In 2008 and 2009, he conceived two creations: "Questcequetudeviens?", a portrait of a woman, and "Sans Objet", a piece for an industrial robot. His creations include different artistic fields : theatre, circus, dance, visual arts, music...  His genre-crossing approach is inscribed within the question of space and is explored through his distinctive scenography. In 2016, he created "ESPÆCE" based on the French writer Georges Perec 's work, at the Festival d'Avignon (France).

Source: Company 111 's website ; Plan Bey 's press file

More information : cie111.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