“Who are we, trapped in a bird's body yet unable to fly?”
In this new creation, choreographer Yvann Alexandre conjures a distant Swan Lake, imbued with signs, an enclosed space upon which a will of deliverance emerges. In a chiaroscuro atmosphere, filled by sounds evoking the vitality of an undisciplined Amazonian forest, the bodies surrender to the crossings of river-states. Swept away by a whirlwind of ambiguities, each performer stands for a vision that can only bloom in the space between conflict and resilience. Lust for skin prevails, that which pierces and stuns, like the stroke of a crossbow echoing a Lake in the flesh.
Concept and choreography: Yvann Alexandre
Performers: Lucile Cartreau, Fabrizio Clemente, Lucas Réal, Marie Viennot, (in progress)
Artistic Assistant: Claire Pidoux
Costume Design: Clémentine Monsaingeon
Music Creation: Jérémie Morizeau
Additional Scores: Tchaïkovsky Swan Lake – Pyotr Ilyich – USSR State Academic Symphony Orchestra, direction Evgeny Svetlanov – 2000
Sound Collections courtesy of the Museum of Ethnography of Geneva (MEG)
Lighting Design: Olivier Blouin
Artistic Counsellor: Philippe Verrièle
Production Manager: Angélique Bougeard
Acknowledgments: Guy Darmet, Madeleine Leclair
PRODUCTION association C.R.C. - compagnie yvann alexandre
COPRODUCTIONS Le Théâtre, scène nationale de Saint-Nazaire, micadanses, Scènes de Pays, scène conventionnée d’intérêt national « Art en territoire » Centre culturel La Loge Beaupréau-en-Mauges et Théâtre du Foirail à Chemillé-en-Anjou, Centre chorégraphique national de Nantes, ONYX Scène Conventionnée Danse et Arts du Cirque à Saint-Herblain
PARTNERS CNDC d’Angers, THV Saint-Barthélemy-d’Anjou, Théâtre de Laval, La Soufflerie, Scène conventionnée de Rezé, padLOBA à Angers, Musée d’ethnographie de Genève
SUPPORT Etat – Ministère de la Culture et de la Communication, DRAC des Pays de la Loire, Conseil régional des Pays de la Loire, Département Maine-et-Loire, Ville de Nantes, Ville d’Angers
JANUARY 2021 | ||||
January 14 | 20:30 | Paris - France | Théâtre de la Cité Internationale - Festival Faits d'hiver | Invitations |
January 15 | 20:30 | Paris - France | Théâtre de la Cité Internationale - Festival Faits d'hiver | Invitations |
MARCH 2021 | ||||
March 13 | 20:00 | Angers - France | Collégiale Saint-Martin | Invitations |
From the very beginning, Yvann Alexandre’s creative driving forces have been rooted in the human matter. All his
From the very beginning, the driving forces behind Yvann Alexandre’s creations have been rooted in human matter. His processes begin with transmission, numerous experimentation and research laboratories, long and multiple phases of exploration, which lead to the final creation of a work. In the last few years, his method of composing on choreographic score with a personal notation has been profoundly modified in favour of a radical emancipation of his own codes and direct interaction with the performers. Finesse and boldness, organicity and spatial skill, rigour of purpose, tenacity and commitment to action, alone on stage together, these are just some of the profound markers of this atypical creator who has been working unceasingly for almost three decades.
Born in La Roche-Sur-Yon in 1976, Yvann Alexandre began his career as a lay friend and at the Conservatory of his hometown with Bernadette Gaillard, then at the La Rochelle Conservatory with Colette Milner, Christine Girard and Brigitte Asselineau. He pursued his career in Montpellier with Epsedanse (directed by Anne-Marie Porras) and at the same time attended the CCN de Montpellier, newly directed by Mathilde Monnier. At this time, his meeting with Christian Bourigault and other fundamental teachings brought to light the foundations of his creative work and his pedagogy. It is thus at the age of seventeen that he composed his first pieces and created his company in 1993 in Montpellier. He created his first work for the Hivernales d'Avignon and Montpellier Danse. In addition to his works, presented on numerous prestigious stages and festivals in France and abroad, he has also been a guest artist at the National Superior Conservatories of Paris and Lyon, Quebec City and Montreal, as well as at the Centre Chorégraphique National de Nancy and the Nordwest Tanzcompagnie in Germany. Over the course of these 25 creative seasons, he has established himself as the representative of an abstract, highly premeditated dance, very different from the performances and improvisations of those of his generation, with a particular dedication to the writing of movement.
Even today, his work still reflects on the very essence of dance, the notion of plasticity giving way to the energy of movement, and this, in keeping with the concept of the line, an element that has been present from the very beginning. In his work, movement and scenography are placed on the same level, like two subjects on par: plastics in total interaction with the body-matter. His highly precise gestures abound in detail and are articulated like a calligraphy of the intimate. In 2019, he took over as artistic director of the Théâtre Francine Vasse in Nantes with an innovative project based on transmission and culminating in a work of art: Les Laboratoires Vivants.
Founded in 1993, the compagnie yvann alexandre is a leading professional contemporary dance company in the Pays de la Loire region. Since its beginnings, the company has always been committed to the exchange of ideas between professionals, amateurs and the general public, while at the same time offering its creations, the company weaves a policy of exchanges, encounters and training. Beyond the dissemination of its work, the company is pursuing an audacious, demanding and radiant project at the crossroads of creation, transmission and territories. The company develops its creations, on stage or on-site, both locally and internationally, and recent creations for the national scene in Sceaux, Panama, Tunisia or the Centre des Monuments Nationaux, for example, bear witness to these invested territories: a project composed of a combination of sustained fidelity after 27 seasons of choreography and a new impetus with renewed partners. Since 2004, the company has developed a close relationship with Quebec, with creation residencies, dissemination and outreach activities, which will be given a new impulse in the near future with the launch of ARCHIPEL: a set of cultural partners in solidarity with diversified and shared ecosystems for a new model of cultural cooperation. Paying particular attention to introducing the art of choreography from a very young age, the company develops and builds from its creations to create multiple educational experiences designed for schools, an innovative and widely acknowledged project. The Petite Université de la Danse is at the heart of these combined, transversal and intersecting courses. Yvann Alexandre is a choreographer of spaces. Since the very beginnings. In 2019, the company took over the artistic direction of the Théâtre Francine Vasse in Nantes with an innovative project that starts with the transmission to arrive at the work : Les Laboratoires Vivants. A place for others, a place together. To work together.