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Interview with Brice Leroux, part 2: Choreographing bodies and spaces

Posted by body pixel on April 1, 2010 at 9:00pm
This is the second part of the interview with choreographer and dancer Brice Leroux. Read the first part here: Interview with Brice Leroux, part 1, Dancing lumino kinetics

Electron-positron interaction from Continum by Brice Leroux


Could you describe a little bit the processes of your work from the beginning…

BL: I guess it depends on every process in particular. Of course, it’s always the first initial point, and it's about the movement and about the perception of this movement. So, I work on certain parameter of movement and then I’m trying to magnify the perception of this for the viewer.

Usually, it’s a physical process. First, it’s about what are your physical cababilities and how far can you go with it? The idea by itself is not important enough; it’s about how we are going with it? How far you’re going to bring it? And about the training with dancers

It’s a long process of building a technique, actually. Of course, it’s not only about us in the studio as performers, but also about the audience. I think that this experience of watching is important. Then, it’s a lot about the scenography, and the light and the costume. How it’s going to allow the audience to focus on the performance. This focusing is important. And I think that these experiments are a mayor issue, although they are not sensing physical experience, it’s about the perception.


Electron-positron interaction from Continum by Brice Leroux


I guess that’s how the process goes and I’m trying to take away everything that is not necessary for the experience, both for the ‘doer’ and for the viewer. On this way you can have full experience and really focus on what we are really doing.

What about these technical parameters? Because you’re using many elements that are based on science… in your work scenography takes an important place, it’s a huge element in your language… basically, the light is dancing, the sound is dancing…

BL: Right! Yeah, as a choreographer I feel as much as a visual artist then a choreographer. Because it’s about the perception of the movement. In this sense I feel like a visual artist and in a way, for me choreography should be a part of visual art. It’s working with the perception, what is specific here we have perception on human movement.

I’m focusing as much on the perception of the movement then on the movement. Of course, I’m also doing costumes, lights, scenography… for me all of these are part of my job, because it’s about the perception of the movement. I have never collaborated with a visual artist for instance, or with a scenographer, or costume designer…


LED cube, photo taken from Instructables


So, you are doing everything by yourself?

BL: Yes! But for me it's much more coherent this way, because I can't work on the movement and then let someone else to show it the way they want. I don’t want to work with visual artists who haven’t been through the whole process and decided randomly to pick up some element. This aspect is gonna magnify or hide somehow. I’m responsible for this, and on this way I’m the scenographer, and the costume designer, light designer, because it’s a part of the process.

It has to be me, who goes through all these processes, otherwise it can’t be coherent. It goes along the creation; all these aspects are going to be parallel works. For instance, I can’t work on the movement and then wander how I’m going to show this, it’s all the part of the same process.

I’m working on the light little by little as much as with the movement. It’s all part of the same process, it can’t be divided for me, and it would be totally incoherent to work on the movement and then let someone else decide how it’s gonna be shown.

Continum by Brice Leroux (c)


What are you seeking from your dancers?


BL: I want my dancers to go fully with the work. That they wanna go as far as they can building up a new technique every time with a new project, and not being afraid to spend hours and hours in the studio working on one simple thing, trying to bring it as far as they can.

You have rather good connections with Bulgaria? One of the company member is Bulgarian contemporary dancer Krassen Krastev...

BL: This just happened like this. Somehow I ended up in Bulgaria long time ago. I guess that was in 1992, if I’m correct, because I have won this Paris competition as a dancer. That was an arrangement with this competition, which is mostly ballet actually, I won it with contemporary dance, but it just happened that there was no first prize for ballet…

So, they have invited me in Varna to show my work. Of course, it was in the early nineties, still post communism situation, especially in Bulgaria; and there were mostly ballet happenings. I’ve felt a little bit like an alien in the middle of those things. I have showed them a quite contemporary solo in the middle of TuTu’s and point shoes, and Paquitas' and Copelias’… (laughs) which was really weird and I felt like most of the people were wondering what is this weird thing they were watching?


Continum by Brice Leroux (c)


But there were actually few people; somehow it seems that it opened a lot their view on what was possible. Although, maybe for three or four person in the audience. For me that was really a strong experience to see that I could touch few people, and that my work has changed their artistic lives.

That was quite intense experience. One of these few people was Krassen. When he saw my work, he founded contemporary dance company in Bulgaria, which was the first. So, it felt like there was some kind of connection. Few years later we met again and I proposed him to dance for me, and since then we have been collaborating and it’s been a great collaboration.

What artists did inspire you in your work?

BL: It’s hard to say. There are a lot of artists that I really like. But in my work, I tend to avoid influences because I’m trying to build what I think choreographic work should be. I don’t want to take it for granted that this is dance and I should go for this.

I’m trying to build my own ideas on what contemporary dance, choreographic composition should be for me. Yeah, I don’t feel any influences. I find the work I’m doing as I’m being completely within and that’s the way it should be.

Led Fiber Optics


What do you think about technology in dance?

BL: It’s just a tool. It’s not interesting by itself for me. I don’t need amazing technology. Actually for this solo, it’s the first time that I’m using some sort of new technology which is really simple. It was just this idea that the source light is lighting an object, but the object is being lit by itself, it’s the object itself that is giving light. And for this I had to investigate in new technology and I ended up working with this electronic luminescence which is kind of new.

Actually, it was really complicated to build this show because it was new, you don’t have a lot of information how this thing is going to work. That was the big part of the process to discover how this is working. There was not a lot of information on this. But it's just a tool, it could be something else. In other shows, I’m only using what’s already in the theatre. I’m not using a lot actually, just few lights most of people are using and I’m trying to get the most out of it.

Continum by Brice Leroux (c)


With this performance 'Solo#2-Fréquences' it was a little bit different. I wanted to use something we are bringing by ourselves. We have our lights; we have our curtains, the scenography that we are bringing with. In this situation when everybody is so close and all around you can not hide the source of light. So, then I needed to have light but not coming from outside. The source of light needed to be hidden, from every point of view. But it was just a tool to go where I wanted to go.

Do you work at the moment on some new piece?

BL: Yeah, I'm coming back to the trajectories in the space. Actually, I'm focusing more on bodies moving in the space and the interaction between the bodies. Rather then the movement of the body in one place, like in the 'Solo#2-Fréquences', where the body is not moving in the space. Then it's about the articulations of the body. I'm coming back more to trajectories and I would like to work now with more people. And again using the theatre context, front stage, big venues… we'll see how it goes…

Thank you, Brice!


Read the first part here: Interview with Brice Leroux, part 1, Dancing lumino kinetics


(Originally published on BodyPixel)
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Interview with Brice Leroux, part 1: Dancing lumino kinetics

Posted by body pixel on April 1, 2010 at 9:00pm
French choreographer and dancer Brice Leroux presented in February his lumino kinetic dance piece 'Solo#2-Fréquences' at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Zagreb. The guest performance was organized by Eurokaz – The International Festival of New Theatre.


Photo of Brice Leroux by Sandra Piretti (c)



Brice Leroux (b. 1974) graduated from the Conservatoire National Supérieur in Lyon in 1992. For his First Solo he received a prize for best contemporary dancer at the Paris International Dance Competition and the Gold Medal of the city of Paris. In 1992 he was awarded a scholarship by the American Dance Festival in North Carolina and completed his training in New York at the studios of Trisha Brown and Merce Cunningham.

In 1994 he moved to Brussels to dance with Rosas. Three years later Brice Leroux decided to give up this work and decided to the study of Musicology and Ethnomusicology at the University of Paris VIII. He worked with David Hernandez, George Alexander Van Dam (violinist in the Ictus Ensemble), Sarah Chase, Jean-Luc Ducourt and others.

In his work 'Solo#2-Fréquences' Leroux uses mathematical schemes applied on movements, LED art, and sound tempo. It's a poetic science on trajectories in space. Brice Leroux is a fascinating and uncompromising choreographer; and he doesn't care much about the establishment, but is fully committed to the processes of work.

Brice Leroux: Continum, photo by Wolfgang Kirchner (c)


Therefore, here is Brice Leroux to tell us more on his art_space_sound_body articulations...

Let's start with your education and interest in dance…

BL: First I've been trained as a ballet dancer. I guess like a lot of dancers, I was being educated like this till the age of sixteen and then I oriented myself to contemporary dance. I’ve studied at the Conservatoire National Supérieur in Lyon. Afterwards, I left for the States to study a bit with the Cunningham Studio and with dancers of Trisha Brown Company. Voila! That’s about it, I’m mainly dance trained…

I’m very interested in your American experiences, because techniques by Merce Cunningham and Trisha Brown are slightly different… What was it like to work with them?

BL: Right! Well, it’s true, the movements are very different in these two techniques, kind of opposite. For instance, Merce Cunningham did everything as a sort of geometry, whilst in Trisha Brown’s technique everything is more free and more like fluid forms. Trisha’s movements were actually informal in a way.

But at the same time, what was interesting to me was the fact that these techniques are really working mostly on the movement. And there is nothing theatrical in it, a dancer is a dancer and dancers are really not pretending to do something, just letting their bodies to work.



Photo: Gravitations by Brice Leroux (c)


I guess, some people would call it abstraction, but I don’t think it’s really abstract, because it’s still a human person doing it. So, I think there is still a possibility for the empathy for the viewer.

It can’t be abstract and for me really is important to define the art of dancing in a way. Like really playing with your body which is totally something else then being an actor, like pretending to live something else. I don’t feel like I’m pretending anything, I’m just playing with my body and I’m living the sensations it gives me, hoping that this is also 'lived' by the viewer, I guess.

Seems that you are interested lately more in corporal work and kind of minimalism… Is there anything that has triggered this interest particularly? When did you decide to do this kind of aesthetics?

BL: Well, I was just trying to learn as a composer. I guess I needed to focus on one figure at the time. I didn’t study choreography for instance, compositions and these kinds of things. My way of working is actually studying every aspect of what composition is. For instance, if I would work on trajectories in space that’s enough for me to focus on, without a need to also work on arms movement for instance or something else.

For me, there is my own 'composition' I work on and then, I work for the viewer… because I’m also trying to create things to let the viewer see this work on trajectories.



Gravitations-quatuor


Therefore, everything out of that I'm moving away to show what I want to see. Hence, I’m working on what’s necessary and what’s enough.
I’m not interested in minimalism itself. I’m just interested to focus on one aspect of compositions, if it’s already a full work, that's enough and I don't have to mix everything.

As for the viewer, I wanna show the specific thing I’m working on. I’m dividing it into parameters, only working on certain parameters at time.

What is your relation as a choreographer to the space… to theatre space? More precisely, how do you treat space in your work?

BL: Um, that’s a large question. As for theatre space, I started experimenting with space more like Trisha (Brown), having more events in site specific spaces. Afterwards, I started to go to theatres and then working in some propositions this space gave me, for instance: What is a block box? What is a frontal perception of the audience?

Solo#2-Fréquences by Brice Leroux (c)


Well, in this performance 'Solo#2-Fréquences', the audience is all around and it's a little bit different. I’m trying to use what's in the theatre and what’s interesting in this situation, the audience is sitting in front of it, in the dark, there are no other stimuli and it’s a live show, it’s direct and you know that’s not an image. A human body in front of them, and that’s a specific situation that I want to work with.

In terms of space, what’s interesting for me is the space between bodies. If you are only working with trajectories, the distance between bodies and how they come close or get far from each other. In a way, what’s really visible for me is happening between space and that’s what I’m trying to work on.

OK, now we can switch to music and the importance of the sound in your work. You studied ethnomusicology and came into contact with other cultures through traditional dances ... Why did you decide to go in that direction?

BL: Traditional dances were interesting to me because you are entering the field that's not about the style, specific style that has been built by some choreographer, but was built over the years, decades, centuries.

Photo: Olivier Matterlart (c) from Quantum-Quintet by Brice Leroux


There are really coherent forms that somehow attracted me to study them and to see what style actually is? You can do the movement with it, like for instance, if you would ask a ballet dancer to do a movement or if you would ask an African dancer to do exactly the same, it’s not going to be the same thing at all. This is what interests me. What are these differences in the way of doing things? And for me, these differences are style, so researching on this was important. Body movements are not only shapes, it’s also a way of doing it.

For me that was a way to go toward the source of the pleasure of the movement. It wasn't being built by someone thinking about what movement should be, it’s just something that has been built up over the centuries, something that is very coherent within the society and just a basic pleasure of what dancing is.

Photo: Olivier Matterlart (c) from Quantum-Quintet by Brice Leroux


Yeah, I know... many people very often use these terms like, lets make now a Forsythe movement, or a Cunningham movement… what about non labeled body and movement?

BL: Yeah, I didn’t want to create my style based on taste. For me that was training, too. As a dancer, I wanted to have all these experiences. But, I don’t wanna be imprisoned with a certain style that I would have to study more then others. I wanted this range of obvious possibilities and from this point, my work is about not deciding on style.

I’ve never decided to use a movement because I think: oh this is nice, so I would do this. So, I’m building this compositional mathematics in order to avoid this. There is some sort of logic and coherence with the project rather then a decision of taste.

I guess, that’s what I’m trying to do, which is somehow opposite to traditional dances. But because it’s opposite, I was really interested in this. I needed to go through all these things to pull away from this, I guess.

Read the second part of the interview with Brice Leroux: Choreographing bodies and spaces

(Originally published on Body Pixel)
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Interview with Hotel Modern: Theatre VJs on brutal themes

Posted by body pixel on November 5, 2009 at 4:30pm
Back in June, during Eurokaz – The International Festival of New Theatre, Arlene Hoornweg and Pauline Kalker from theatre company Hotel Modern gave me an interview about their work. We weaved our talk around two of their performances - Kamp and The Shrimp Tales.

Photo by Herman Helle from Kamp

Hotel Modern is not a typical theatre company. Because of their visual aesthetics and the multiple use of cameras, sculpture, puppetry and various sound devices, you can find them regularly in books that cover topics of expanded, live cinema and new media art in cinematic context.For those of you who admire the work by Slinkachu, Nathalie Djurberg, Marcel Dzama, Josef Nagj, Tadeusz Kantor, Walter Martin & Paloma Munoz etc, the relation with Hotel Modern is like a theatre extension of visual arts.

Let’s start with the concept of your company… the concept is wider, it involves theatre aspects, but you are also notable company in the field of expanded cinema… but there is a lot of applied arts present even on your web site… I would call it visual art…. When did you decide to choose such aesthetics?Arlene Hoornweg: We like that!Pauline Kalker: Yeah, we have the website with many rooms. I think, it’s because when we made our first performance somebody suggested us if we would like to do a music theatre. That person thought that this was maybe something for us, we were very young at that time. Then she got an idea…Arlene Hoornweg: Yeah, I was playin’ guitar. That was after theatre school, and Pauline and I were searching a bit. After theatre school I realized I want something else. I wanted to perform, but I also liked music. So, I started to play guitar and I really liked making songs and I really got into that. Then the theatre director said, you can make a music performance if you want. I said, OK! Let’s do that. Then we asked Arthur Sauer, the composer to work with us. He still works with us. And then the three of us made a music performance and it was fun.

Photo by Leo van Velzen from The Shrimp Tales

Arlene Hoornweg, Herman Helle and Pauline Kalker

PK: Yeah, it was fun to go really into technique, because he had these little boxes which distorted our voices, like making high voices and pitched it. He had many different instruments, and Arlene gathered texts around the theme of life and death. She made a number from every text, like a song and Arthur had all these instruments and it was really like playing. It was fun to play with the technique of his music and sounds, to make a kind of landscape of sounds. I think we both like playing with it.AH: But we also found out what we can tell with text, what we can tell with music, for example. And that’s also what we do now, what we tell with images? What we can tell with text? We can tell a lot with images, and you can tell a lot with music; and you can tell something with text…

Photo by Leo van Velzen from The Shrimp Tales

PK: They all have their own possibilities. We both like the fact that the level of imagination in our performances is very high. I think we like to be in another world, to create the whole world, not only text. We want to create a really new universe. You need different senses for this. Because it’s not only one dimension, it’s not only people and text.For instance, like our latest performance we did with shrimps. It’s called The Shrimp Tales, actors are real shrimps. If you have a world that is populated by shrimps, which perform human activities that’s even more imaginative. Especially with cameras and small models Herman (Helle) is using in ‘Kamp’, you have literally a whole world build.

Photo by Herman Helle from Kamp

You have small models and you can be in that world, then you can make them talk with one another. You need sound to make an atmosphere. I think, if you have different media like music or visual art with sound and little bit of text sometimes, the imagination becomes even more intense, more then having only a painting. Well, it’s not better then another, it’s just what we like.You have many layers; that’s natural…AH: Yes, that’s the way we look at life. That you have so many layers, that there is not only one. There are lots of artists who want to have the essence, or a focus they are trying to pick up. That’s also very nice, but we want to pick everything out of the world to show the richness, and the layers. We also want to show the enormous cosmos.

Photo by Hans Werlemann from Rococo

Your performative technique is very specific… where would you place yourself as performers?PK: That’s different from each performance. For instance, in The Shrimp Tales we are using these little microphones and we are dressed up like we are a kind of glamorous or punk band with light on our faces. We are moving the shrimps and we do a lot of voices, we really have to make shrimps performing. At the same time we also have screenings and projections on the wall.So, the audience can see huge shrimps in a shrimp world and can be focused on it. They can also look at us; we are also performing as actors, playing the scenes and animating the shrimps, doing the voices of shrimps. The audience can watch us, too. We are really performing as actresses, we are really there. We are showing emotions on the face, and we are aware that the audience is sometimes looking at our faces to see our emotions, and then they look at the shrimps again.

Photo by Herman Helle from Rococo

With ‘Kamp’ is more sober. We are part of a machine. We are there, but we are like in a machine. In that way our bodies are telling the kind of objectivity that in ‘Kamp’ is kind of objective, in factual way. Our performing is anonymous and factual, we have really choreography. We sit down or get up in the same time, the rhythms of our bodies and the moves in that way are related to dance. We are really aware of how we stand or how we look. We choose a neutral way of being there. In ‘The Great War’ we have the text, and the text is a bit like songs, but for acting… it’s very very short. We do it like text but more in a song way. We are aware of our voice.When we are a part of the machinery we are also partly technicians at the stage, like cameraman. We have to run around getting the machinery going. At the other hand we also make sounds on the stage.

This multi-functionality is pretty logical these dayz… Besides, it’s the way you express yourself within many different techniques… you function like a post rock band…PK: Because we are a group, it’s more like a band. Herman brings his models, I bring the story line, Arlene her performing skills, you know. So, when thinking about the content, we did all things together. Composers are bringing sounds, and we all bring stuff together into the whole artwork. So, the artwork has a special energy.Yeah, it’s a mash up of your ideas and thoughts…. Could you describe me the processes of your work?AH&PK: First, we never now! (laughter)PK: After every show we have to start all over again. It’s like a cliché, but it’s true. You think you know nothing.AH: Yeah, nothing. What we are going to do?! Sometimes you get nervous, but sometimes you don’t. Then we start to write down our ideas and thoughts. But it also depends of the project. For ‘Kamp’ it was a very specific idea that came up. For ‘The Shrimp Tales’ the ideas came from many different ways and we had gathered them and developed it from ideas we had last few years.

Photo by Joost van den Broek from The Great War

PK: There is always a starting point. There is always this one person who has the beginning idea, because only one head pumps up. So, for ‘The Shrimp Tales’ it was my idea to get shrimps out. Actually it was a comedy idea; basically I wanted shrimps performing people. Then we had some ideas and we decided to do it on the stage. So, that’s much opened and very specific. We had an idea from before, the idea of showing the city. So, that’s how we connected it. What’s in the city?! What happens in the library, or in the museum, or hospital?AH: Then we decide either we want them on the ground or on the tables.

Photo by Joost van den Broek from The Great War

PK: Going from these ideas there are many moments to turn on your fantasy. We really have to make it work. We collect many ideas and then we choose the one we like the most. After that, Herman makes the model of that and we collect our stories and connections in the plot. We want to get the atmosphere of these places.Herman first makes very simple model which we use for improvising things. Then we start to talk and write a little bit to work it out. We combine many ideas, and then we choose the one we like most. We pick them together and make a good scene of it. In the process we also make a lot of crap, so we choose really good ones. That’s basically like shooting with a lot of bullets.

Photo by Joost van den Broek from The Great War

You are cleaning the mess of ideas…PK: Yeah! First, we create a mess of ideas, because we have to create a lot of ideas in order to play with them.AH: And, of course, we discuss a lot about it. What the performance is about, and what structure does it have? Why we want to use some things, why not other, and so. In ‘Shrimps’ we ended with fifteen scenes in thirty minutes, and that’s a lot.PK: In ‘Kamp’ it was different, because the story was already there. We just had to decide what part of the story we want to show. At the end we finally chose the basic things, maybe like a cliché – gazing, crimes. For us, we don’t want to be original in what we tell. We want to tell the basic things and the most shocking, the basic things in a way.

Photo by Joost van den Broek from The Great War

For instance, there were also medical experiments in Auschwitz and we wanted to have a scene also showing that. Because, we didn’t want to use texts, the image of medical experiments that we made didn’t communicate at all. Then we decided not to put it in. Not everything has to be in and dedicated. Instead of that, we thing that it has to be consistent and in a way balanced. We also have execution in performance, but we didn’t show every way of execution, but only one. It was quite difficult to choose which element we want to show. So, that was another path.AH: Some things are the same, and some not because the material is different.

Photo by Herman Helle from Kamp

Seems like covering the topic of Auschwitz in ‘Kamp’ had stronger effect with puppets and big screens, instead of acting… People find hard to comprehend the fact of evilness… Atrocities and killings are happening now in this very moment in Africa, Asia… but we are never enough prepared for those facts…PK: I think it’s good to have different ways of telling. As preparations for Kamp we were watching documentaries with interviews of the survivors. I think that’s the best way of telling… just listen to the stories by people who were there. That’s really authentic, but it’s good to have other ways to complete the whole image. There is not one way, the best way of showing that.I think, with the testimony you can get the story from really the first source. It’s very very good to try to show it with images, documentaries or, like us, with puppets. It’s good to have these different ways of going around the theme.There is not one good way. It should be from different art forms to different media. Monuments, radio and so, actually everything that contributes the commemoration, reflection and realization of what happened.

Photo by Leo van Velzen from Kamp

AH: There are so many artists using different ways to talk about this theme for very different audience. There are different ways to get in touch with it. Some people came to our performance and they said: it’s so distant to me, you know. It doesn’t click. It’s good to have all these books and art forms to trigger them. That’s the way people can connect with the image and to get to emotions. Some people can easier connect with books, some through image…PK: People have different portrayals. It’s also different if you want to commemorate or if you want to grab information. These are different things. Those are different purposes actually. There are different things you can do towards the theme: memorizing, contemplating…

Photo by Herman Helle from Kamp

Connecting these things with what happened in Bosnia, or in Rwanda. That’s also a relation, to make connection with the world today. I’m happy to see that many artists within different media are relating with the theme, making different relations and actions towards it.Arlene & Pauline, Thanks a lot!Hotel Modern is at the moment at world tour. Check here dates; maybe they will stop by near your neighbourhood soon…(This interview was originally published on Personal Cyber Botanica: www.lomodeedee.com)
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Interview with Aurelien Bory: On stage puzzles and space formulas

Posted by body pixel on October 14, 2009 at 12:30pm
During this year's edition of Eurokaz - The International Festival of New Theatre I had an opportunity to interview artistic director of CIE 111 Company, Aurelien Bory...

Aurélien Bory in Zagreb, photo taken from SEEbiz (c)

CIE 111 performed the 'Seven Boards of Skill' which was really great chance to talk with Bory on his aesthetics, directing methods, usage of new technologies in art and the trilogy itself...Aurélien Bory studied film, then acoustic architecture before turning to theatre. He has been heavily inspired by circus and juggling since he was a teenager.The Company says about the trilogy: 'Since its creation, CIE 111 has been aiming to the development of a poetic writing, using juggling, acrobatics and music and exploring scenic language as a whole.

With this point of view, the matter of space appeared obvious, on one hand because juggling and acrobatics are tightly linked to it and obey perfectly to its regulating laws and on the other hand because theatre is considered here like the art of space as defined by Oskar Schlemmer himself.Therefore, the concept of a trilogy about space is imagined declining its dimensions. Three-dimensional space (the volume), two-dimension space (the plane), one-dimension space (the line) become the themes of the three respective episodes IJK, Plan B and More or less infinity.That way, the fact is to question the relationship between man and space, from its more daily form until its conquest. Imagined as a poem in which the addition of simple forms produces, by layers, a complex structure, the trilogy suggests to the spectator’s imagination to proceed with ideas associations, recognition or projections of their own references and experience of today’s world. This flow of sensations becomes movement of thought. The elsewhere is in the core of our relation to space whose quest is endless, in loop, vain. Trilogy seems to be this: three dimensions, three elsewhere and three impossibilities.’

Photo by Mihail Novakov taken from flickr (c)

Your stage work is always designed as a sort of puzzle, there is always some kind of construction we have to build in our imagination… you’ve studied cinema and physics and there are so many elements included in your performances… we have to solve something at the end of the performance…AB: Yeah, you’re right (laughs). I like very much this idea. I didn’t put it that way before, but I like it now, doing this puzzle. Like in this show. It’s right what you just said. I’ve always done puzzles (laughs).You were also inspired by Bauhaus, Oscar Schlemmer and all these geometrical constructions. … but it’s not only about the geometry…AB: Yeah. You know, I wanted to make theatre with everything. I think everything could be theatre. Everything that fits on the stage could be theatre. In the past, I worked a lot with different elements: slides to scenery, new technologies like video for example, which is not really NEW, but for theatre it’s new, you know (laughs). For example, I have done more then four performances with video. And for the show ‘Seven Boards of Skill’ I wanted to do a show without video, because it’s not a necessary tool. I wanted to come back to something more basic as blocs or architecture. Not to go in all directions, but to focus on one direction. But, it’s still, of course, a mix of things.I’m trying to find for each projects specificity. Not to be very specific, not to be too general or to do as I already did. I’m trying to do something new. As for my last performance, I’ve tried to do something with the architecture and the geometry. I wanted the show to be dead and it’s a change, because people on the stage are only doing architecture. They are trying to explore where could be their body in that architecture. So, the performance is questioning the place that we can build for ourselves in the world.

But in my last two performances, which are part of the trilogy inspired by Oskar Schlemmer, it’s difficult after that to say what is it exactly. If it is dance or circus… even in this show you can say that it is circus. There are very scary balances with architecture, it’s like these blocs are doing acrobatics by themselves, you know.So, it’s mixed and people usually ask, what is this? I answer them: It’s theatre! Of course, we can do theatre with dance. For example, the biggest choreographers like Pina Bausch, before everything she was an excellent director. For me, being a theatre director stands before being a choreographer. They are doing their work for stage. First of all, they are excellent stage directors. I follow these ideas – the idea of theatre, the idea that we can do everything with theatre, circus, architecture, music, images, shadows… like shadow puppetry, you know. When you really want it, you can do theatre with these things and the only important thing is to respect the rules of the stage. They are complex and each performance is an opportunity for me to get something new about those rules.It’s interesting that you have found inspiration in street art… basically, circus and jugglery are ancient forms of street art…AB: I wouldn’t say street art. Because I’m not very connected with street art, but I’m very interested in acrobatics, juggling and these kind of things. They interest me because they’re very connected with physical rules and gravity. Falling ball, the body… to do acrobatics is to define the gravity, to dance also means to define gravity. And at the same time to listen the gravity, to let it be in our body or in the object.So, because of all these I’m interested to be connected with the physical world. Theatre is the only place where gravity is for real. You know, it’s the only art, not the place, but the only art where gravity is the part of the game. If you write a book, or make a movie there isn’t gravity. You can lie with gravity… Gravity is a part of the space, part of what you are doing. That’s why all things that I have chosen are connected with this direction – the art of the space.This trilogy is about the space and this piece is simply an extension of it. In this performance I’ve applied all what I did in trilogy to make something different. It is a little bit more philosophical then the whole trilogy. There was also philosophy in the trilogy, but in a very specific way: form, subjects, volume, playing, laying. In the Chinese show there is more about the WORLD. I’m talking about the world in a sense of humanity.

Seven Boards of Skills, Cie 111 (c)

It’s very obvious that you tend to create a small microcosm, this time you have picked up a huge civilization. Chinese philosophy, art, theatre are massive and complex systems…AB: Yeah, I found very interesting the fact that China is the world itself. Basically, they had put the whole during years and years, being separated from the rest of the world. So, I didn’t want to say that in my performance, but I used this fact that it’s a world by itself. I wanted to put this on the stage: A WORLD. And the place of human beings in that world. Of course, I was very inspired by Chinese philosophy because it was very important to make some connection with that. It’s very important to respect the context of the performance. Chinese audience makes its connections, while Western audience makes other connections. It is not about China, I think it’s universal. It’s not about THE World, but A World. A construction of that, with some absurdity, with serious things, with humour, with poetry. Of course, poetry is something what I’m doing.It’s a stage poetry…AB: Yes, it’s stage poetry. As for poetry and myself, you know, I don’t have a message. Let the audience enters into this poetry and make its own message.Your are relaying on the audience… it’s a very opened structure… it’s about that what they see and how they perceive shapes and spaces…AB: Yeah, it’s an opened structure and if it works, the imagination is very active. If it works! If it doesn’t work, well, then you can get bored (laughs). In this kind of connection, I call it art. Art is not the object itself; art is relationship between you and whatever you are watching. That’s art. If it’s working that’s something incredible. You think that this painting, or film or performance have been made for you only. If it’s working really… It’s for me, it’s talking to me! (laughs). If it doesn’t work you don’t feel connection with that what you’re watching and it’s just boring.Can we go back to the human body, and the thing you’ve said previously that you are interested in these balances on the stage… Do you allow the actors to reveal themselves within your guidelines or you are directing them in which was they should be going? I don’t think in a sense of choreographing…AB: I’m trying to find all strategies to discover something that will surprise me. All strategies are good. Sometimes you don’t know what the exact strategy to find something is. I’m very interested to discover what I didn’t know before and it’s very difficult, because you don’t know how to get that. For example, I wanted to experiment with some kind of movement on these blocks. What I’m doing is that I’m trying all combinations. I’m interested to explore everything of this triangle, everything. OK, could you walk on it?! Could you climb on it?! Could you slide, jump or run?! What could you do?! What is the connection between you and this object? What is the connection between the bodies? What can you do with your body?It’s always a dialogue between the body and the space. This dialogue is infinite. I’m always trying to find little discoveries, you know. For this performance I needed that. Not discoveries that I already made in my paper book, while I was working prior going to rehearsals. I’m not looking for discoveries in that moment. I just make repetitions with the actors on the stage, then I’m searching to discover some new things. Something that I haven’t had thought about before. Sometimes nothing happen… Some days can happen something incredible by chance or something else…

Seven Boards of Skills, Cie 111 (c)

Let’s switch now a little bit to this element of sound, and the perception of sound in your work… after all these elements we had mentioned before, sound could be the last layer in your work…AB: Yeah, yeah… you know, light and sound… I’m trying to make them acting to provoke things. So, the sound goes parallel in real time with actions. I’ve asked a friend of mine who lives in Paris to make some sound with Chinese elements like gongs. I said to him: I need the sound of the Earth and the sound of the Sky! GO! (laughs). After that, I’m cutting it with the sound engineer and technicians in order to make it adaptable for the stage. Exactly the same is with the light… I really want the light to follow the action and to be part of the action. So, at the beginning I only thing about the action, what’s the action and what is part of the action? Is light a part of the action?! Yes / No?! Do we need sound?! Yes / No?! I like silence, too.Silence is also a sound…AB: Yeah, exactly. I don’t like when music is an obligation. I don’t like when people are using music in theatre to be decorative or to make it beautiful. I like the action on the stage, so if the music could be also a part of this dialogue on the stage, that’s good. We don’t need necessarily music. Sometimes silence is more powerful. When I’m saying that everything could be theatre that means action. Everything could be part of the action, not decorative. Not to make it beautiful. I’m not interesting in making things beautiful. What is action and what could be part of the action?Could you describe me a bit your working processes…AB: I’m trying to make the concept of the product. It takes about one year of work. During this year I’m trying to answer questions: What is it about and what for? On first question you have to answer very clearly, if you can’t that means that you don’t know. If you don’t know, it means that there is no project. What for means why? What’s interesting in that you want to do? Why do you want to do it now? Why do you want to try that now? You have to answer to these two questions. So, my concept is to have an idea, to have those two answers. For example, I decided to make a trilogy about the space, because theatre is space. Theatre is the art of space. You have three, two and one dimension in theatre. Zero dimension is not a space, not space that we now in our physical world.So, I wanted to work with the space because theatre is space and what is space actually? It is volume – plain, line. You know, theatre is not only about space, but also about life. Space is maybe the most important thing is our life. We follow space, we live in space. We are very sensitive to space. If we feel good in the room or not we know that immediately. Human beings are very space animal. And we are always looking for new spaces. Now, we have to go to the moon. So, this was very interesting subject and I wanted to make three performances about that. So, then when I realized and had answers to my questions, I decided to put space, plain and line on the stage.

From Erection, photo by Pierre Grosbois (c)

Taken from Sofia Dance Week

Then I’m trying to find the good scenery. I always work with the moving scenery. Now, it’s a part of my aesthetic. Scenery that you can move, not fixed scenery. Scenery that could be transformed. For example, if you remember Plab B performance, there were scenery and worlds designed completely vertical, not horizontal. But, it’s the same object. I work with object. Scenery is not a scenery that you are looking at, because scenery is part of the action and object. At the same time, the scenery itself is an object of the show. If it is a plain, I’m putting there a plain. Basically, if it is an tangram, I’m putting at the stage an tangram. It means, my work is very very basic. You know, the word tangram has been given to the game by Westerners, but the original translation from Chinese qi qiao ban would be the ‘Seven Boards of Skill’. I like working with that, which means that I believe in simplicity. But, I hope that after the whole process I would find not expected things. I want to create real surprises.Have there been other contemporary artists in particular that have had a strong influence on you, or whose work you admire?AB: I really believe in contemporary art today. Some artists are very inspiring. Of course, you have mentioned constructivism and Bauhaus… but I also like Op Art from the sixties, cinematic arts, then minimalism… But now, I’m also very interesting what is going on with photography, artists that cross the barriers of art. For example, I’m interested in contemporary artists which are doing now street art. I like artists which are combining architecture, street art and old monuments, statues, churches. Objects that have now different functions and meanings, and you feel like watching with new eyes. My question is: what is it about the art? Well, I think you have to give the eyes to the audience. For instance, there are a lots of photographers now, which are interested in bodies and dance…

Seven Boards of Skills, Cie 111 (c)

Oh, sure… you mean Denis Darzaq…AB: Yeah! Darzaq is doing something I would like to do. This is definitely my style. (laughter) Darzaq and other photographers are now crossing the fields of dance, acrobatics and photography. It’s now a mix. Today, you can see a kind of mix of things. The artists of today are like that, mixing different things. I think I belong to them, too. I want to try new things that provoke something and refreshing a little bit. But, at the other hand, it’s not necessarily inspiring, because I don’t want to make all these arts. I want to enjoy in it as being a part of the audience. In cinematography my favourite film maker is James Gray. It has nothing in common with my work. For me, James Gray is like Dostoevsky, you know. He is an incredible film maker.There are lots of ideas in the moment that I really like in contemporary art. Very good ideas…What do you thing about technology usage in theatre? Affordable technology is developing faster and faster… lots of people are trying to play with it, some good… some less good…AB: You know, I think technology is not a subject, it’s a tool. If you get to make technology as art, that’s OK. But, if you make only technology that’s bullshit. There are also many rubbish things by many people who are ‘amazed by technology’. There are also people who are doing real art with technology. I like the work by Daito Manabe. He is making the sound with impulses from his face. I saw his work at Youtube.He does a kind of dance of the faces. He is using four different faces, and the result is the same dance because he uses electronic impulse. So, this is a little piece of art for me and it’s interesting because you see very passive dance. No will, just moving about our body. It’s talking about the fact that we are passive in a way. We just let technology enter our body. This is very interesting to me. But there are also many artists that are doing interactive arts with very sophisticated technology. When somebody is amazed because he moved his arm and made some sound from a machine I don’t find it an art.Do you think that this could be described as tech mannerism or baroque?AB: Yes. It’s only technological. Yeah, you moved your arm, and there is a sound behind. So, it’s a technological curiosity. It is only a gadget. It could be the first step, but of course it is not enough at all. For me, interactivity need this answers: what is it about and what for?

Photo: Compaignie 111 – Sans Objet

Taken from Contemporary Performance Blog (c)

Do you desire to do something more with technology in theatre?AB: I’m in repetition now. I will have a new performance in October… It’s soon, yeah. It will be something with robots, old industrial robots. You know, robots that we use in car industry. I will stage this robot who has nothing to do and actors with their bodies. So, it’s a dialogue between them. It’s also based on sculptures. The subject is what is alive and what not? These barriers between alive and not alive. The relation between technology and body became so blur.Before, we knew robots were not alive, now it’s becoming a little bit blur. I’m talking about that. Also, it’s very inspired by Kleist’s philosophy. It’s inspired by Kleist’s thought’s on theatre and puppetry. So, it’s a kind of Kleist’s theatre of forms, because the robot is capable to take big objects, so I want him to take floor and build monoliths. This is a poem about inutility and useless activity, which is art and also a lot of things in human beings experience. Why do we need useless activities? And at the same time old robots are now useless. He built cars before, but now he’s is unusable. So, being useless is a little bit closer to human beings (laughs). So, I’m going to do that!Aurelien, Thank you very much!(This interview was originally published on Personal Cyber Botanica)
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