It was when “Végétal” (Plant) was being performed at the Tokyo Festival of Contemporary Poetry in March 1997 that Régine Chopinot was asked to also compose a solo on a contemporary Japanese poem. Her choice was based on “Colonne de mots” (Column of words) by Shuntarô Tanikawa, the first words of which: “Johann Sebastian Bach built a temple of sounds in the void, but me, I build a column of words in the void…” resound like an echo familiar of the worlds of “Soli-Bach” (Bach Solos) and “Végétal”, previous creations by Régine Chopinot. “Colonne”, presented in 1997 in Tokyo and at the Montpellier Danse Festival, would later be performed in 1998 as an prelude to “Quatre Saisons” (Four Seasons), alternating with “Chant de la lune” (Moon Song) another short poetic piece. This piece is designed as a recital of danced poetry in which Régine Chopinot dances a solo, to a saraband by Johann Sebastian Bach, played on the flute by Julien Beaudiment. She is accompanied on stage by narrator Hiroko Kamimura, who reads the poem in the tradition of the Noh theatre.

The author, Suntarô Tanikawa, was born in Tokyo in 1931. He is one of Japan's most productive and popular contemporary poets. His work has long been characterised by the placing side by side of distance and belonging to the world. An explorer of language, his poetry sometimes takes us to a completely unreal world, sometimes reflects the naked voice of a poet confronting life (cf. programme from the Théâtre Le Maillon, Strasbourg, January-March 1998). He is also known for his works for children and young people, as well as for his translations (“Tales of Mother Goose”, 1975), songs, plays and essays.

““Colonne” is me, where I am. It is the very intimate space that exists between me the choreographer and me the dancer: a snake biting its own tail! It is austerity and fullness which occupy me as much as the ordinary person.  My pleasure in dance versus my desire for sketches and wilderness. The crossing of the desert accompanied by two beings of grace. Because “Colonne” is a trio of the breath with Hiroko and Julien, on the very simple thing that is the void, emptiness.” (Régine Chopinot, quoted in the programme of the Centre culturel français de Damas (Damascus Centre of French Culture), May 1998)

Updating: February 2013

Régine Chopinot, born in 1952 in Fort-de-l'Eau (today known as Bordj El Kiffan), in Algeria, was attracted to choreographic art from early childhood. After studying classical dance, she discovered contemporary dance with Marie Zighera in 1974. She moved to Lyon where she founded her first company in 1978, the Compagnie du Grèbe, which included dancers, actors and musicians. Here, she created her first choreographies. Three years later, she was awarded second prize in the Concours chorégraphique international de Bagnolet (Bagnolet International Choreographic Contest) for “Halley's Comet” (1981), later known as “Appel d'air”. Her next pieces of work “Délices” (Delights) and “Via”, introduced other media including the cinema to the world of dance. In 1983 with “Délices”, Régine Chopinot began her longstanding partnership with the fashion designer, Jean Paul Gaultier, which would characterize the period, which included works such as “Le Défilé” (The Fashion show) (1985), “K.O.K.” (1988), “ANA” (1990), “Saint Georges” (1991) and “Façade” (1993). In 1986, Régine Chopinot was appointed director of the Centre chorégraphique national de Poitou-Charentes (Poitou-Charentes National Choreography Centre) in La Rochelle (where she succeeded Jacques Garnier and Brigitte Lefèvre's Théâtre du Silence), which went on to become the Ballet Atlantique-Régine Chopinot (BARC), in 1993. Régine Chopinot made a myriad of artistic encounters: from visual artists like Andy Goldsworthy, Jean Le Gac and Jean Michel Bruyère, to musicians such as Tôn-Thât Tiêt and Bernard Lubat.

At the beginning of the 90s, she moved away from – according to her own expression – “ultra-light spaces” in which, at a young age, she had become acknowledged, in particular through her partnership with Jean Paul Gaultier. She then became fascinated with experimenting on confronting contemporary dance with natural elements and rhythms and on testing age-old, complex body sciences and practices, such as yoga. In 1999, as part of “associate artists”, Régine Chopinot invited three figures from the world of contemporary dance to partner with her for three years on her artistic project: Françoise Dupuy, Dominique Dupuy and Sophie Lessard joined the BARC's troupe of permanent dancers and consultants-researchers, as performers, pedagogues and choreographers.

In 2002, she initiated the “triptyque de la Fin des Temps” (Triptych of the End of Time), a long questioning of choreographic writing and creation subsequent to her creation of a voluntary state of crisis of general notions of time, of memory and of construction. “Chair-obscur”, her first chapter, focused on erasing the past, the memory, whilst “WHA” was based on the disappearance of the future. “O.C.C.C.” dealt with the “time that's left”, with what is left to be done, with what can still be done, in that simple, yet essential spot called performance. In 2008, “Cornucopiae”, the last work created within the Institution, concluded the end of a form of performance and opened the doors to another approach to sensorial perception.

Concurrently to her choreographic work, Régine Chopinot worked, as a performer, with other artists that she was close to: Alain Buffard (“Wall dancin' - Wall fuckin'”, 2003; “Mauvais Genre”, 2004), Steven Cohen (“I wouldn't be seen dead in that!”, 2003). In addition, she trained and directed Vietnamese dancers as part of a partnership with the Vietnam Higher School of Dance and the Hanoi Ballet-Opera (“Anh Mat”, 2002; “Giap Than”, 2004). In 2008, the choreographer left the CCN in La Rochelle and created the Cornucopiae - the independent dance Company, a new structure that would, henceforth, harbour creation and repertoire, all the works of Régine Chopinot. In 2010, she chose to live and work in Toulon, by its port.

Since 2009, Régine Chopinot has been venturing, questioning and intensifying her quest for the body in movement linked to the strength of the spoken word, through cultures organized by and on oral transmission, in New Caledonia, New Zealand and Japan. These last three years have been punctuated by a myriad of artistic creations: choreographies and films resulting from artistic In Situ experiences were created as part of the South Pacific Project. A privileged relationship initiated in 2009 with the Du Wetr Group (Drehu/Lifou) bore its fruits with the creation of “Very Wetr!”at the Avignon Festival in July 2012 and went on to be reproduced at the Centre national de la danse (National Centre for Dance) in February 2013.

More information

cornucopiae.net

Last update : March 2012