A choreographic extract remodelled by the group À l’abordage, coordinator Anne Lucas, as part of the “Danse en amateur et repertoire” programme 2023/2024 (a programme created to assist and promote amateur dancing).

Transmission by Olivia Grandville, choreographer, Sylvain Riéjou, performer in the first production.

Presented on 15 June 2024, Le Manège de Reims.

The piece when it was created

Combat de Carnaval et Carême

Firstly produced 18 January 2016 at the Lieu Unique, Centre de culture contemporaine de Nantes

Choreography: Olivia Grandville

Work for ten performers: Bryan Campbell, Konan Dayot, Tatiana Julien, Gaspard Guilbert, Maximin Marchand (chant), Aurélie Mazzeo, Martina Musilova, Sylvain Riéjou, Asha Thomas, Lise Vermot 

Music: Antonio Vivaldi, Robert Hood 

Original duration: 1h20

The group

À l’abordage (Rennes, Bretagne)

Since 2017, À l'abordage, based in Rennes and hosted by Réservoir danse, has been made up of adult amateurs who, once a week, share in the creative process the creative process of guest artists and discover different choreographic universes. 

Curious about artistic experiences (approaches, writing, career paths, performances...), this group of twelve people expressed the desire to go through a creative process and work with a choreographer over a longer period of time. So they gathered their expectations around an extract from Olivia Grandville's Combat de Carnaval et Carême already renamed Batailles for a reduced version.  

The project 

Originally created in 2016, the 50-minute Combat de Carnaval et Carême referred to the eponymous painting by Bruegel the Elder, which offers a wide range of postures. The iconographic inspiration already made it possible to explore the relationship between pictorial art and dance as part of the cultural action component. The group also wanted to explore a particular creative process at work in this piece, with each performer receiving his or her score of gestures and instructions live via earphones. This unprecedented form of improvisation dictated the will of the group, led for the occasion by Sylvain Riéjou, performer of the original creation. Condensed to 15 minutes, the piece remains faithful to some of its original intentions, while adapting to the specific qualities of the 12 amateur-rices. 

Trained first in ballet, Olivia Grandville resigned from the Paris Opéra Ballet to join the Compagnie Bagouet in 1988. For more than twenty years she has developed her own work, most focusing on the question of language and phrasing, be it musical, verbal or choreographic.

In 2010, she created Une semaine d’art en Avignon (A week of Art in Avignon) with Léone Nogarède and Catherine Legrand, under the auspices of the Sujets à Vif section of the Avignon Festival, then Le Cabaret discrépant, the result of research carried out on lettrist choreographic scores, created and presented at the 2011 Avignon Festival and then at the Théâtre de la Colline in Paris. During the 2013  2014 season, she created a number of solos: L’invité mystère (The mystery guest) based on a text by Grégoire Bouiller; Le Grand Jeu, a solo described as «under the influence»; and Toute ressemblance ou similitude (Any resemblance or similarity) based on a text by Aurore Jacob. She then created a number of larger scale works, notably Foules (Crowds), a creation for 100 amateur dancers, in 2015, prefiguring her next work, Combat de Carnaval (Carnival Combat) and Carême (Lent) for 10 dancers. She has been an Associated Artist at the Lieu unique since 2017, where she created A l’Ouest (In the west) in May 2018, channeling her own study trip to Canada and the USA to research First Nations dances.

Grandville is also a dancer and improvisation specialist and is regularly invited to work on the implementation of projects, notably by the choreographer Boris Charmatz (Roman-Photo, Levée des conflits, 20 danseurs pour le 20èmesiècle) and César Vayssié (Coproud)…

La Production Rémoise – Romu DUCROS

Romuald Ducros’ love of photography is a family affair. He was first introduced to photography at a very early age by is father, who was a member of the Bièvre “Club Photo” (founded by André Face). Later it would become both his passion and his profession.  

In 2011, Romuald created Production Rémoise, which specialises in the production of film and photography. His work stands out for its artistic sensibility and creative approach, with each production being a unique work of art.   

His productions range from video capture for performances of dance, theatre, opera and contemporary music, to films touching on sensitive social issues, or celebrating the valuable work of local artisans.  

As an artist-creator, Romuald joined the Leica Akadémie France, while also working on artistic events and exhibitions.

https://www.laproductionremoise.fr/ 

Amateur Dance and Repertory is a companion program to amateur practice beyond the dance class and the technical learning phase. Intended for groups of amateur dancers, it opens a space of sharing for those who wish to deepen a practice and a knowledge of the dance in relation to its history.

Laurent Barré
 Head of Research and Choreographic Directories
Anne-Christine Waibel
 Research Assistant and Choreographic Directories
 +33 (0)1 41 83 43 96
danse-amateur-repertoire@cnd.fr

Source: CN D

More information: https://www.cnd.fr/en/page/323-danse-en-amateur-et-repertoire-grant-programme