Presented in the Centre national de la cinématographie (CNC - National Centre for Cinematography)'s “Découverte d'une œuvre” (Discovering Work) collection, this first short film, produced by Régine Chopinot in partnership with the head cameraman Etienne Becker, was commissioned by the Musée d'Orsay to celebrate the centenary of the Eiffel Tower.

In the centre of a circle of papier-mâché buildings – evoking Paris and imagined by Marc Caro – an anthropomorphized Eiffel Tower (Rita Quaglia) tramples the dark, mineral-powder covered ground with its clodhoppers. Dressed in a strange, Jean Paul Gaultier-designed, riveted, square-shaped-legged costume, this suspended Eiffel Tower plays with gravity: flyovers, takeoffs, seesaw effects, amortized... With her camera, Régine Chopinot got as close as possible to the movements, inspired by the “design principle of this excessively baroque tower” [1]. As such, she began by shooting the feet-foundation, then the arch, the neck and “that which Mr Eiffel used as his office” [2], which she let explode in the last few seconds, “metaphor for the head – according to Annie Suquet – this mecca of mental control that Chopinot had never ever stopped eluding right from the very beginning” [3].

In this “fantasy” [4] as she called it herself, Régine Chopinot was once again accompanied by the choreologist Noémie Perlov, and the performers Frédéric Werlé and Rita Quaglia, to transpose the experience of “Rossignol” (Nightingale) unto a more narrative, less experimental, yet such as audacious scale.

[1] R. Chopinot, Les Chopinotes, No. 2, March 1988, p.1.

[2] R. Chopinot quoted by A. Suquet, “Chopinot”, Le Mans: Cénomane publishing house, 2010, p.17.

[3] Annie Suquet, op. cit., p.17.

[4] R. Chopinot, Les Chopinotes, op. cit., p.1.

Programme extract

“As the title suggests, an unconventional tribute is paid by the choreographer Régine Chopinot to a certain Gustave Eiffel and his famous Parisian monument, from which she only remembered the feet. An intriguing figure with square, riveted trousers, wearing clodhoppers that make the char-gravel-covered ground grind, then he glides and swirls over a Paris made of papier-mâché, designed by Marc Caro, with costumes by Gaultier. Over and over again, with circular concentric movements, sketching dance steps, flying through the air, carrying away Gustave himself, clinging unto his creature, the Tower places itself in the centre of the stage and then disintegrates into a pyrotechnic fantasy. An audacious, dreamlike film veiled in a sombre, blue, mysterious atmosphere."

Patrick Bossatti (“Images de la Culture” catalogue - CNC)

Updating: February 2012

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