Ha ! Ha ! / First produced 2006

Choreography Maguy Marin
Dance performance Compagnie Maguy Marin

“Laughter – a word that can be so annoying.

We would like it to cheer us up.

We want to be transported by a burst that wells up and escapes.

Escapes what?

Instant and fleeting, we would like it to be healthy, to do us good.

We would like it to combat our weaknesses, our dubious appetites, our incomprehension, our habits, but also to reinforce our lives and our essential relationships.

Laughter is the one thing we would like to share, live and relive together, next door or not too far. We would like it to be diverting.

Diverting us from what?

We would like to laugh at ourselves, at others.

Starting like that, tugging at the corners of our lips. Laughing together!

At everything, all the time, because you have to, don't you?

You have to laugh! We all have weaknesses, we should laugh at them…

We all have the right to relax, to escape, to get away.

Get away from what?

But where did we slip between the laughter lines?

What are we really laughing at, and with whom?”

Maguy Marin

Source : Maguy Marin company

Credits

Création Maguy Marin en collaboration avec Ulises Alvarez, Teresa Cunha, Jordi Gali, Cathy Polo, Jeanne Vallauri, Vania Vaneau et Vincent Weber costumes Montserrat Casanova assitée de Chantal Cloupet lumières Gilbert Guillaumond son Antoine Garry coproduction Festival Montpellier danse 2006 Théâtre de la Ville de Paris ccn de Rillieux-la-Pape/Compagnie Maguy Marin

Production Maison de la Danse date du document vidéo 2006 réalisation Charles Picq

Maguy Marin was born in Toulouse in 1951 and studied dance at the conservatory there before joining the Strasbourg Ballet. In 1970 she was accepted at Maurice Béjart’s school Mudra, where she stayed three years before becoming a soloist (for four seasons) with the Ballet of the 20th Century, under the direction of Maurice Béjart. A turning point would come at the end of this period seeing her shed all her previously held conceptions “allowing a multitude of creative choices, liberty and also constraints to emerge. Nothing was ever the same”. She also began questioning the body types idealized within the dance world, a subject that would become central in her work. “With Maurice Béjart the body was magnified. Youth, virtuosity, everything sparkled. And I had a problem with that. I asked myself what happened to all those other bodies, the ones that were infirm, misshapen or uncoordinated, but who managed to keep standing nonetheless.” 

Between 1980 and 1997 Maguy Marin was based at the Maison des arts in Créteil, with her company becoming an official Choreographic Centre in 1985. 

From 1998 until 2011 she directed the National Choreographic Centre in Rillieux-la-Pape. After which time the company once again became independent, setting up in Toulouse in order to continue their creative research. In 2015 the company moved again, this time to Sainte Foy-lès-Lyon, where they set up in an old carpentry factory. Their tenure there would allow them to continue to open up the immaterial space of that which is shared, something that obstinately seeks to make itself manifest while encouraging the unfolding of a new ambitious project: RAMDAM, AN ART CENTRE. It is a place of horizontal sharing, dedicated to hosting artists and audience members alike. It is also a place intent on facilitating an on-going exchange and continuous circulation between those conducting research, amateurs, students, spectators and volunteers; as well as creating bridges between different artistic practices, laboratories, places for public relations, education and reflection. 

- 1978: Grand Prix du Concours chorégraphique international de Bagnolet - 2003: Grand Prix de la danse du Syndicat de la critique for
Les applaudissements ne se mangent pas
- 2003: American Dance Festival Award 

- 2006: Special jury prize Syndicat de la critique for Umwelt
- 2008: Bessie Award for Umwelt presented at the Joyce Theater
- 2008: Grand Prix de la danse du Syndicat de la critique for Turba
- 2011: Prix Danza & Danza for “Best Contemporary Dance Piece » for Salves - 2016: Golden Lion, Venice Biennale 

More information : compagnie-maguy-marin.fr