Having shown his first solo, Heimat, at the 2013 edition of Rencontres chorégraphiques, Jérôme Brabant returned in 2014 with IMPAIR, which was once again inspired by the island of La Réunion where he is originally from and which he rediscovered in 2009.

This time he draws on the island's tisaneur tea-makers and magnetisers, wizards of pain-soothing plants, among whom were his great-grandparents and the tradition of which is passed down orally, from father to son. He delivers a piece in which music and dance are closely interwoven in an incantatory form, drawing on the rites and myths that fuel Creole imagination. Accompanied by David Fourdrinoy, a percussionist with a passion for improvisation who worked at the CNDC in Angers as an accompanist before leaving for La Réunion, he produces a sensual, eternally resurgent dance that plays with a hypnotic dimension. On a stage marked out by white bands, plunged into near-darkness and simply lit by a few projectors that section up areas of chiaroscuro, Jérôme Brabant evolves with his undulating body, appearing to sculpt the space. Everything comes from his hands, which offer, indicate, caress and evoke the times of the healers as much as the imposition of hands or day-to-day movements that handle, weigh and separate the plants. He then launches into a more ample movement, creating a body that whirls and unfolds or comes undone in a continuous, fluid movement, undulating and sensual. Alongside him, David Fourdrinoy officiates from the shadows and creates a vocal and soundscape that is at times astounding, at others creaking, and at others still sharp like a mineral, the trance of the dance thus combining with that of the music, which is organic and pushed sometimes as far as pure feedback.

This is how IMPAIR is built and revealed, paying tribute not only to the tisaneur ancestors of Jérôme Brabant, who still combine plants in odd, or indivisible, numbers, but also to a culture that embraces supernatural forces, rendering them inseparable from all existence. In doing this, the choreographer-dancer in turn tisane; indeed, in Creole, the word means to bewitch or enchant.

Updating: September 2014 

Jérôme Brabant is a choreographer, born in 1973 at Saint-Pierre in Reunion Island. He studied theatre at Paris 8 University and the Mimodrame Marcel Marceau School. In 2001 he joined the Toulouse/Midi-Pyrenées Choreographic Development Centre to follow the “Extensions” course and started his career as a dancer-performer for several companies: Marco Berrettini’s *Melk Prod, the Samuel Mathieu company, the Patricia Ferrara company/Unber-Humber Group.

Jérôme Brabant started working as a choreographer from 2002, when he founded the UND und ballet with Marion Muzac. He created his first pieces: Roomy Dancing in 2002, Gala in 2003 and Pavilion in 2004.

In 2011 he founded his Octogonale Company on Reunion Island. His return to the island was the opportunity for him to search for a choreography that focused on the island’s identity. He created his first solo, Heimat, “the country you carry within you”.

In 2014, he produced his second solo performance called Impair, which was inspired by the craft of his grandparents, who were well-known for their knowledge of medicinal plants and magnetic healing.

In 2015, Jérôme Brabant collaborated with New Gravity, a group of free runners, and with them he created the piece Emergency.

In 2016, he researched exoticism with Maud Pizon and created A Taste of Ted, a group of solos adapted from original creations by Ted Shawn.

Source : Lalanbik’s website

More information : https://www.lalanbik.org/ 

Since 2001, the National Center for Dance (CND) has been making recordings of its shows and educational programming and has created resources from these filmed performances (interviews, danced conferences, meetings with artists, demonstrations, major lessons, symposia specialized, thematic arrangements, etc.).