Solo
2009
Choreographer(s) : Decouflé, Philippe (France)
Present in collection(s): Maison de la Danse de Lyon , Saisons 2000 > 2009
Video producer : Maison de la Danse
Integral video available at Maison de la danse de Lyon
Solo
2009
Choreographer(s) : Decouflé, Philippe (France)
Present in collection(s): Maison de la Danse de Lyon , Saisons 2000 > 2009
Video producer : Maison de la Danse
Integral video available at Maison de la danse de Lyon
Solo
Philippe Decouflé dances here in the first person singular, as “I”. Yet he does not choreograph his ego. He offers fragments of existence and of sensations where each spectator may conjure up a portrait. His “Solo” is an “I” that swings back and forth between himself and us.
His life? His work? We don't really care. The “Solo” is slightly, but just very slightly autobiographical. Yet it speaks to our human hearts. Imagine ten fingers filmed in close-up on a table, two wandering hands that twirl around and set the beat. It doesn't seem like much in writing, but on the stage it is so intense that several spectators fainted. Imagine a myriad of cameras and screens kaleidoscoping Decouflé infinitely, going on and on and on. He is transformed into a water ballet master where he forms, by himself alone, the astounding flock of beauties in swimming costumes. Wait, that's just the beginning, the show goes on… “I'm full of doubt”, explains the choreographer upon the Solo opening. A specialist on the question and on the subject, René Descartes, said before him: “I am not the assemblage of members called the human body”. I dance therefore I am, is an undeniable contribution from Decouflé to philosophy.
Source : Maison de la Danse performance program
Decouflé, Philippe
Dancer, choreographer, director and art director
As a child, I dreamt of becoming a comic book artist. Drawing is usually the start of my creative process. I just throw out ideas and sketch out pictures that pass through my head. My culture is comics, musicals, nightclub dancing, and also Oskar Schlemmer, the Bauhaus choreographer. Discovering photos of characters from his Triadisches Ballett was a revelation for me. I had always wanted to work with simple geometric shapes like cubes and triangles. I liked seeing how these lines and volumes behaved with each other. Alwin Nikolaïs taught me the importance of light and costume, and the confidence you need to mix everything together. Technically, it was Merce Cunningham who taught me the most about dance. I was taking video courses he was giving in New York. It was fascinating. That’s where I learned how to solve problems of distance and geometry, and the basic principles of optics and movement. Tex Avery inspired me a lot in thinking up gestures that are almost impossible to do. I’ve always kept something of that desire to create something strange, extreme or crazy in my movements. I’m looking for a dance style that’s off-balance, always on the verge of toppling over. With influences like the Marx Brothers, for example, and in particular Groucho Marx, I’ve developed a taste for naughty risk-taking, and comic repetition of mistakes.
Source : Philippe Découflé
More information : cie-dca.com
James Carlès
Bagouet Collection
The committed artist
In all the arts and here especially in dance, the artist sometimes creates to defend a cause, to denounce a fact, to disturb, to shock. Here is a panorama of some "committed" choreographic creations.
La part des femmes, une traversée numérique
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CHRISTIAN & FRANÇOIS BEN AÏM – VITAL MOMENTUM
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DANCE AND DIGITAL ARTS
Black Dance
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Unconventional contemporary dance shows which reinvent the rapport to the stage.
Artistic Collaborations
Panorama of different artistic collaborations, from « couples » of choreographers to creations involving musicians or plasticians
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Collaboration between a choreographer and a writer can lead to the emergence of a large number of combinations. If sometimes the choreographer creates his dance around the work of an author, the writer can also choose dance as the subject of his text.
Dance and performance
Here is a sample of extracts illustrating burlesque figures in Performances.
Round dance
Presentation of the Round’s figure in choreography.
The Dance Biennale
Female / male
A walk between different conceptions and receptions of genres in different styles and eras of dance.
Dance and visual arts
Dance and visual arts have often been inspiring for each other and have influenced each other. This Parcours can not address all the forms of their relations; he only tries to show the importance of plastic creation in some choreographies.
Hand dances
This parcours presents different video extracts in which hands are the center of the mouvement.