Anne Koren dances; Frédéric Leidgens writes; Daniel Emilfork dozes and raves aloud, prostrated in an armchair; François Verret pretends to be fascinated by a wooden doll that he handles with caution. It is time to leave. Everyone is getting ready to flee in the face of an imaginary danger and fill a cart with objects and blankets.
 

Despite the evocative power of the images, the exodus here is interior and the cart will never leave the leprous walls of the shed. Taken from Quel est le secret ?, a work that François Verret qualifies as “resistance”, the film ends with a cynical farce evoking the pre-war Berlin burlesque theatre. A dark and prophetic work on helplessness and solitude that the film adapts in the only way possible: with dryness and distance. The work was performed in Orleans, Aix-en-Provence and Montpellier in 1987.

Source : Patrick Bossatti

A trained architect, he discovered dance in 1975 with Karine Saporta for whom he also performed. He continued his training with Susan Buirge and Jacques Patarozzi, whilst pursuing research with a variety of partners. After spending a year with Hideyuki Yano and Elia Wolliaston, he founded his own group in 1979. A prize-winner at the Bagnolet International Choreographic Contest in 1980, he rather quickly distanced himself from institutional production and dissemination channels and developed partnerships with various artists, on the fringe: actors, musicians, dancers, visual artists, lighting designers. In 1994, he settled in the suburbs of Paris and opened his own place, the Laboratoires d'Aubervilliers, a hub for research and creation which he directed until 2000.

Whilst building on great literary works (from Goethe to Péguy, Kafka, Melville, Musil and Faulkner), he remains committed to the idea of “choreographing reality” by questioning space and gestures, and privileges experimentation, processes. His works are metaphorical and question social and political aspects or explore the value of work and memory, human enigma. Although his work queries public space and reflects a strong ethical standpoint, his poetics, akin to Kafka’s world, lead him to imagine performances whose structures are complex, where bodies and machines fall prey to incredible disruption. His highly-unusual creations walk the high-wire of derision and re-examine the relationship with the public.

Source : Irène Filiberti, Myriam Blœdé, Dictionnaire de la danse (dir. Philippe Le Moal), Larousse, 2008

En savoir plus : 

http://www.compagniefrancoisverret.com/