For more than twenty years, Cindy Van Acker, a Flemish choreographer now living in Geneva – has been burning up our international stages with her astonishing works, which try to cross as many lines as possible, notably pushing the envelope sensorially with perception, sensation and of course with the dancers’ bodies. She uses sound, the set and the lighting to magnify and heighten her movements.
Cindy Van Acker is impressed by our company, by the intensity and commitment of its dancers who, according to her, go beyond virtuosity while also integrating it into their work and exploding its shapes. 

ELEMENTEN, A CYCLICAL PROJECT
ELEMENTEN is a project encompassing several upcoming creations by Cindy Van Acker; its title refers to the treatise Elements by the ancient Greek mathematician Euclid. The thirteen books of Elements are a mathematical and geometrical treatise, organized thematically. The first books focus on plane geometry, others deal with arithmetic and spatial geometry, containing many axioms, postulates and definitions.

I am inspired by the treatise in that I am using specific geometric principles to determine the trajectories of the dancers, their positions in the space, the notation of the movement, the rhythm of the lighting, perhaps even the set design.
But these theoretical elements involve only certain layers of the creation; each section of the ELEMENTEN cycle will have a sub-title which will evoke the essence of the project. 

ELEMENTEN I - Room
ELEMENTEN I - Room, the first section of ELEMENTEN, will be premiered by 16 dancers from the CCN ‑ Ballet de Lorraine in March 2016. It is a commission by Petter Jacobsson, to the mythical piece I am sitting in a room by the composer Alvin Lucier.

“I am working a lot with the idea of limitations.
This idea relates to the creation of ELEMENTEN I-Room specifically because of the radical choice of music, I am sitting in a room by Alvin Lucier, created in 1996. It consists of a speech spoken by the composer himself, recorded, repeating and rebroadcast until the natural and resonant frequencies of the room come together, overpowering the concrete sound of the voice and any comprehension of the words.
The focus becomes tautological, the structure of the speech, repeated over and over, provokes its progressive transformation, its dislocation leading to its dissolution. Repetition creates a throughline around which perception moves, varying without stopping the ambitus (the curving melodic line) of its intensity, forcing it to become active, to see, to observe, to listen, to feel, to receive.
The limitations evoked in this work appear in the common space between the scenic player and the spectator, respectively the tautological transmitter and the receiver ...
In terms of body language, the dialectic of limitations becomes part of my resistance when facing the virtuosity of the dancers, so that I may maintain the deep conviction which places the work between the two parties, weighting it with the restraint which allows me to push the dancers beyond their initial capacities, into unfamiliar terrain where a real exchange may take place.
The set consists of two elements, a dance floor measuring 8 meters x 8 meters imprinted with an image inspired by the spiral of Ulam, based on prime numbers, and a luminous object linked to software which regulates the light intensity relative to the sound.”
Cindy Van Acker – January 2016

Elementen II - Zaoum, a creation for 7 dancers of the Compagnie Greffe, will premiere at the Arsenic in Lausanne, based on Quando stanno morendo by Luigi Nono, co-produced by the Arsenic, the ADC in Geneva and the Théâtre Les Halles in Sierre.

Elementen III, whose subtitle is still TBA, will be a creation for 11 dancers of the Ballet du Grand Théâtre of Geneva for the opening evening of the Journées de la Danse Contemporaine Suisse in Geneva in 2017.

By her  choreographic writing, combining esthetical sobriety, minimalist  movement, precise composition and the use of electronic sounds, Cindy  Van Acker examines with a quasi scientific meticulousness the relations  between the body and the spirit, sound and rhythm, and creates pieces  crossing the borders of dance, performance and visual arts.

Trained in classical ballet, Cindy Van Acker first danced in the Flanders Royal Ballet in Belgium  and at the Geneva’s Grand Theatre before emerging in the contemporary  dancescene in Geneva. She creates her own pieces since 1994 and founds  the Cie Greffe in 2002 at the occasion of the creation of Corps 00:00 that obtained international recognition. In 2003, Van Acker creates two other solos, Fractie and Balk 00:49.

In 2005 she signs her first group piece for eight dancers, Pneuma 02:05. The same year, the Italian director Romeo Castellucci invites Van Acker to present Corps 00:00  at the Venice Biennale. This first meeting leads to an artistic  collaboration with Castellucci who suggests her to create the  choreographic part for his creation of Dante’s Inferno (2008 edition of the Avignon Festival). Under his direction, she also signs the choreographic part of the operas Parsifal, created at De Munt in January 2011, and Moise und Aron, set up at Opéra Bastille in October 2015.

In 2006 she creates Puits at the Théâtre du Galpon in Geneva, a collaboration with Vincent Barras and Jacques Demierre, performed by Perrine Valli.

Invited by Michèle  Pralong and Maya Boesch during the first year of their  co-directorship of the Théâtre du Grü in Geneva, Cindy presents a trio  of women, Kernel. Created in 2007, Kernel  provides an opportunity for a first and stimulating collaboration with  the Finnish composer Mika Vainio of the Pan Sonic group. He created and  played live the music for the performance. This experience continues in  2008 with Lanx at the Electron Festival and in 2009 for the creation of the solos Nixe and Obtus for the Bâtie-Festival de Genève. Obvie, Antre and Nodal  complete this series of six solos and are the source of as many films  realized by Orsola Valenti. The choreographer presents four of these  solos: Obvie, Lanx, Nixe and Obtus at the Festival d’Avignon in 2010.

With Monoloog in 2010, she renewed her collaboration with the Electron Festival and Mika Vainio.

In October 2011 she creates Diffraction, piece for six dancers and a light-machine, 9-tubes designed by Victor Roy. In October 2013 Diffraction  receives one of the four Swiss awards of dance in the category «  Création actuelle », designated by l’Office Fédéral de la Culture.

In January 2012 she conceives with Victor Roy the project Score Conductor,  an exhibition and materialisation in visual objects of the  choreographic scores that Cindy has written since 2003. At this occasion  and on the initiative of Michèle Pralong, a book by the name of Partituurstructuur is edited by Héros-Limite.

In 2013 she creates Magnitude for 22 dancers of the Ballet Junior directed by Sean Wood and Patrice Delay as well as Liniaal  for the Cie Virevolte directed by Manon Hotte in Geneva. Then, in the  same year, Helder is premiered on la Belle Scène de Saint Denis on the  proposition by Myriam Gourfink in the context of her residence at the  Forum Blanc-Mesnil. And, last, in November 2013, she signs Drift, a duo performed by Tamara Bacci and herself.

In July 2014, Cindy Van  Acker created Anechoic during Expeditie Dansand on the beach Ostende  for 53 danseurs de P.A.R.T.S. The play is resumed in June 2015 with 40  dancers of the Ballet Junior 13 and CFC-dance in Geneva. 

ION,  her last work created in March 2015 at Théâtre Vidy Lausanne, marks her  return to the solo form, its possibility of radical experiments and the  looking for extreme plasticity.

Cindy Van Acker has  been responsible for the physical formation at the Haute Ecole de  Théâtre, la Manufacture, in Lausanne from 2006 till 2010.

Her  professional path is marked by her collaborations with Myriam Gourfink,  Romeo Castellucci, Victor Roy and by the collaborators of the Cie  Greffe.

Source : Greffe company

More information : www.ciegreffe.org

Since acquiring the CCN title in 1999, the Centre Chorégraphique National - Ballet de Lorraine has dedicated itself to supporting contemporary choreographic creation. As of July 2011 the organization is under the general and artistic direction of Petter Jacobsson.
The CCN – Ballet de Lorraine and its company of 26 dancers is one of the most important companies working in Europe, performing contemporary creations while retaining and programming a rich and extensive repertory, spanning our modern history, made up of works by some of our generations most highly regarded choreographers.
The CCN functions as an art center and venue for multiple possibilities in the fields of research, experimentation and artistic creation. It is a platform open to many different disciplines, a space where the many visions of dance of today may meet. 

More information : http://ballet-de-lorraine.eu