Eden (1992)

Not just a place to be born, this town. Toulouse. A place to settle, reached after a series of moves provoked by political unrest in Spain. So it was there that she grew up, in France, at the start of the fifties. A dancer’s dream has to be born somewhere – a desire which grew as her studies progressed: at the conservatoire in Toulouse, then at the Strasbourg Ballet and at Mudra (Brussels). A momentum already marked by encounters: the student actors of the Théâtre National de Strasbourg, Maurice Béjart, Alfons Goris and Fernand Schirren ... a future which took shape with a theatrical research group (Chandra) then Maurice Béjart’s Ballet of the Twentieth Century. New encounters, other obvious directions. Her creative work began alongside Daniel Ambash, and the Nyon and Bagnolet competitions (1978) gave a further impetus.

A team formed (there was Christiane Glik, Luna Boomfield, Mychel Lecoq...).

So, now to bring this artistic research alive. To carry this need to create through into an essential work. A work nourished by an unquenchable astonishment at how the world is made. A world that we arrange and which makes us up. In research or composition, this shock is ever present, but continually shaped over the course of encounters.

1981 - a formative encounter with the work of Samuel Beckett: being there, without having chosen to be, between that moment when one is born and when one dies. That time which we fill up with futile things to which we ascribe such importance. A distressing absurdity – (“May B”). That time which obliges us to reach a kind of understanding with numerous others, while we wait to die – (“Babel Babel” and “Eden”).

Research always approached as teamwork. With a company, a troupe reinforced by Cathy Polo, Françoise Leick, Ulises Alvarez and many others besides
1987 – a new encounter: this time with Denis Mariotte. A collaboration begins. Decisive, it goes beyond the music. Points of view begin to diverge. A distancing space opens up (“Cortex”) and spreads in a number of directions (“Waterzooï”, “Ram Dam”, “Pour ainsi dire” and “Quoi qu'il en soit”). No more illusions, but living beings, just as they are. Lively music and living together which is no longer an expression of Me, but of “Us, here, now”.

A meeting of presences which act in a common space (“Points de Fuite”, "Les Applaudissements ne se mangent pas”). There, on stage, we are components in a social space. We are also the expression of others’ space. We – collectively – each take our place. In a “how to live together” that is a never-ending experiment. So, one acts in spite of everything. Ceaselessly experimenting with our possibilities – great or small – (“Umwelt”) so as not to lose sight of the fact that escape from reality is nothing more than a laughable restlessness (“Ha! Ha!”). And in all this orderly or disorderly turmoil, rhythms coexist and create the movement, the life (“Turba”). So, a tireless searching – in this place where past experiences, present life and the yet to come interweave – for the necessary distance to take an impartial look at what is at stake (“Description d’un Combat”).