(creation 2013)

Héla Fattoumi and Eric Lamoureux ask seven female dancers to perform femininity, and to explore the expressive potential of the body beyond the simple artifices allotted to the feminine.In an empty space overhung by seven lightboxes evoking the proverbial “glass ceiling”, they dress their seven performers in an arsenal of hair extensions and other body prostheses – worthy of Cindy Sherman or ORLAN – to produce a feminine landscape of disturbing homogeneity. Choreographing the transformation and riving of this idealized carnal fabrication, they draw out and thwart the most pernicious and alienating of the stereotypes attached to women. From nineteenth century odalisques brought together by the painter Jean-Dominique Ingres in his The Turkish Bath, to Moorish women posing silently and naked for colonial postcards, to the most contemporary representations of the sex doll, with a certain irony they unveil a veritable factory for clichés. Through the artifice of these representations, they lay bare the de-figuration of one entire fringe of humanity by another, and in response to this travesty of the erotic fascination of the male gaze, they bring us a horde of seven rebels.Almost literally lifting the lightboxes, which constitute veritable symbolic barriers, the seven beauties, until then prone and lascivious, take on rebellious and expressive movement. Combative gestural phrases give way to dancing pelvises swaying enticingly. The women oscillate between femininity and masculinity with impetuosity, attempting to escape all dualism.

Throwing gender into confusion, in the utopian vision of getting rid of its diktats, the message of Héla Fattoumi and Eric Lamoureux seems to be : may these women be free to play every possible extreme.

Performers Marine Chesnais, Lea Dodik, Sandrine Kolassa, Johanna Mandonnet, Clémentine Maubon, Alissa Shiraishi et Nele Suisalu Sound design Eric Lamoureux Collaboration Jean-Noël Françoise Sound manager Thomas Roussel Lighting design & technical direction Xavier Lazarini Lighting manager Jérôme Houles Costume Elise Magne & Héla Fattoumi Costume making Sylvia Crine & Annaïg Le Cann Thanks Mégane Giraud Artistic collaboration Stéphane Pauvret

Production Centre Chorégraphique National de Caen/Basse-Normandie
Coproduction Arsenal - Metz en Scènes, NorrlandsOperan, Mâcon - Scène nationale, théâtre de Caen, Moussem.eu with the support of Programme Culture de l'Union Européenne

With the support of the International Dance Programme of Swedish Arts Grants Commitee. Thanks to Dansstationen, Skänes Dansteater, Rorelsen and Danscentrum Syd of Malmö (SE).

dernière mise à jour : avril 2013

Héla Fattoumi and Éric Lamoureux founded the Compagnie FATTOUMI/ LAMOUREUX in 1988. Their first work Husaïs was awarded the prize for best first piece at the Bagnolet International Choreographic Competition in 1990, then their trio Après-midi  received the “New Talents” prize from the SACD in 1991. These two  pieces placed them as leaders of the new generation of contemporary  choreographers and brought them international renown.

A space for research whose source is the intermingling of their individual features.
  From piece to piece, they mine the intrinsic intelligence of the body,  its power to reveal meaning, which can also be thought as a part of  movement.
  Several other important pieces were created in the same vein as Husaïs: Si loin que l’on aille (at the Théâtre de la Bastille and the Théâtre de la Ville, 1992); Fiesta (commissioned by the Avignon Festival, 1992); Asile Poétique (at the Théâtre de la Ville, 2000) based on texts by the poet Antonio Ramos Rosa; Wasla, ce qui relie… (at the Lyon Dance Biennial, 1998); Vita Nova (at the Grande Halle de la Villette, 2000) with the 11th graduating class of the National Center for Circus Arts.
  These pieces show choreographic work linked to the ideas of mastery/  nonmastery, strength/ fragility, minimalism/ performance, a dance whose  expressive weight is charged by a “graphic energy.”

They were appointed directors of the CCN of Caen/  Basse-Normandie in 2004, where they continued their work with pieces  focusing on societal issues.
  These works were La Madâ’a (at the Arsenal in Metz, 2004) with the Joubran brothers, Palestinian virtuosi on the oud; Pièze (a “pressure measurement”) and La danse de Pièze  (at the Festival Dialogue de corps, Ouagadougou, 2006 and the Théâtre  de la Bastille), about the idea of “homosensuality” in the Arab-Muslim  world; Just to dance… (the Espace des Arts in Chalon-sur-Saône, 2010), a piece about the idea of “creolization” developed by Édouard Glissant; MANTA,  a solo created at the Montpellier Festival in 2009 and performed on  tour (Tokyo, Séoul, Berlin, Tunis, Brussels, Stockholm, Oslo), based on  the problem inherent in wearing the niqab; Lost in burqa, (at  the Festival danse d’ailleurs, 2011) a performance for 8 dancers, based  on the “clothing-sculptures” by the Moroccan plastician Majida Khattari;  Masculines (at the Arsenal de Metz, 2013) and on the representations of the feminine on both sides of the Mediterranean.

They are reactivating a choreographic research recharging itself with the expressive and poetic potential of dance.
Une douce imprudence co-signed with Thierry Thieû Niang (at the  Festival Ardanthé 2013, and the Théâtre National de Chaillot, 2014) on  the idea of “Care”; Waves, a commission for the Swedish opera  company NorrlandsOperan and its symphony orchestra, under the auspices  of Umeå 2014, European cultural capital, for which they are associated  with the Swedish singer and composer Peter von Poehl.

They also chose to step outside theatres to work in situ in other reactive contexts.
  In February 2009, they created the performance Stèles as part of a special “Nocturne”, a commission from the Louvre Museum.
  In 2008 they created Promenade at the Grand Palais, imagining a dialogue with the monumental sculptures of Richard Serra.
  In January 2012 they created Circle, inviting the audience into  the center of a circular structure where dance goes wild with the  massed collective energy of 26 professional and amateur dancers.
  In 2013, as part of the Normandy Impressionist Festival they stepped  inside the exhibition “Summer at the water’s edge” at the Beaux-Arts  Museum of Caen for a choreographic Flânerie (wandering).

Creation of the Festival Danse d’Ailleurs (Dance from Elsewhere) (2005)
  Beginning in 2005, they founded the Festival Danse d’Ailleurs whose  vocation is to put back into perspective the idea of universalism while  questioning referent frameworks for modernity in art, relating to  cultural horizons.
  The first four editions focused on artists from the vast, diverse  African continent and brought international recognition to the event,  and the following editions opened as far as Asia, linking with the Hot  Summer Festival in Kyoto, Japan.

Héla Fattoumi and Éric Lamoureux are fully committed to the promotion and the defense of choreographic art.
  From 2001 to 2004, Héla Fattoumi was the dance vice president of the  SACD (Société des Auteurs Compositeurs Dramatiques). She was also in  charge of programming the section called ”Vif du sujet” at the Avignon  Festival.
  From 2006 – 2008, she was the President of the ACCN (Association of the  National Choreographic Centers). From 2010 – 2013 Éric Lamoureux took  over the Presidency; he is now the vice president.
  From 2013 to 2015, Héla Fattoumi has been the president delegated to long-term planning at the SYNDEAC.

In March 2015 Héla Fattoumi and Éric Lamoureux were named  Directors of the Centre chorégraphique national de Franche-Comté in  Belfort, for which they are developing their VIADANSE project.

The Centre Chorégraphique National de Franche-Comté in Belfort (CCNFCB) is a space dedicated to contemporary creation. The French CCN label (National Choreographic Center) was established in 1984.

Currently there are 19 of these National Choreographic Centers in France.

Since March 2015, the Centre chorégraphique national de Franche-Comté in Belfort has been directed by Héla Fattoumi and Éric Lamoureux, for which they created the project VIADANSE. 

Their project VIADANSE is laid in the prospect of a 3rd generation choregraphic center, revolving around a dynamic concept highlighting the circulation of projects and the building of networks, from Franche-Comté to Burgundy ; from the Grand Est to Switzerland and Europe.