Prologue - La longue histoire de « Vieilles gens, vieux fers »
2006 - Director : Centre national de la danse, Réalisation
Choreographer(s) : Weidt, Jean (Germany)
Present in collection(s): Centre national de la danse , CN D - Spectacles et performances
Video producer : Centre national de la danse
Integral video available at CND de Pantin
Prologue - La longue histoire de « Vieilles gens, vieux fers »
2006 - Director : Centre national de la danse, Réalisation
Choreographer(s) : Weidt, Jean (Germany)
Present in collection(s): Centre national de la danse , CN D - Spectacles et performances
Video producer : Centre national de la danse
Integral video available at CND de Pantin
Vieilles gens, vieux fers
The long story of « Vieilles Gens, Vieux Fers »
In 1928 in Hamburg, the young 24 year-old dancer Jean Weidt presented the first piece from his suite “Vieilles Gens, Vieux Fers”. Traumatised by the aftermath of the Great War, he introduced a fascinating and provocative vision of Expressionist dance. Revived throughout his career, the piece is emblematic of his engagement as a “red dancer”, placing dance at the heart of politics and social issues.
In 1948 Françoise and Dominique Dupuy performed this piece with the Ballets des Arts. In 2006, the revival of the work went beyond questioning memory and reconstruction to investigate the very substance of this dance, its body states, its energy, etc.
During the performance, Françoise and Dominique Dupuy accompany the dance with images, words and demonstrations of movement in order to put it back into its historical, political and aesthetic context.
Updating: November 2010
Weidt, Jean
(1904-1988)
German dancer, choreographer and teacher from a working-class background, Jean Weidt dedicated his art to the political dimension of the body and to the proletarian cause in particular.
In 1929, under the Weimar Republic, he created the ensemble “Die Roten Tänzer” (The Red Dancers), a group of politically-engaged dancers who took the initiative to tackle political and social questions on stage through the artistic means of expressionist dance. As a member of the communist party, he fled Germany in 1933 and lived between Paris, Moscow and Prague. At the start of the Second World War, he was deported to a stateless persons' refugee camp in Algeria before joining the British Army.
In 1946 he founded the Ballet des Arts and won the gold medal at the International Dance Archives Competition in Copenhagen with "La Cellule” in 1947. He returned to Berlin in 1949, where we worked for the Comic Opera in particular.
Last update : November 2010
Centre national de la danse, Réalisation
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.).
La longue histoire de Vieilles gens, vieux fers
Artistic direction / Conception : Françoise Dupuy, Dominique Dupuy
Choreography : Jean Weidt
Interpretation : Albane Bouvier, Amala Dianor, Isabelle Dufau, Dominique Dupuy, Fanny Maire, Fabrice Merlen, Florent Ottello, Stéphanie Pignon, Céline Roussel, Barbara Sarreau
Original music : Caix D'Hervelois
Roots of Diversity in Contemporary Dance
Les Rencontres chorégraphiques internationales de Seine-Saint-Denis
Body and conflicts
A look on the bonds which appear to emerge between the dancing body and the world considered as a living organism.
James Carlès
States of the body
Explanation of the term « State of the body » when it’s about dance.
The BNP Paribas Foundation
Improvisation
Discovery of improvisation’s specificities in dance.
Dancing bodies
Focus on the variety of bodies offered by contemporary dance and how to show these bodies: from complete nudity to the body completely hidden or covered.
A Numeridanse Story
The American origins of modern dance: [1930-1950] from the expressive to the abstract
Why do I dance ?
Artistic Collaborations
Panorama of different artistic collaborations, from « couples » of choreographers to creations involving musicians or plasticians
Outdoor dances
Stage theater and studio are not the only places of work or performance of a choreographic piece. Sometimes dancers and choreographers dance outside.
The contemporary Belgian dance
This Parcours presents different Belgian choreographers who have marked history and participated in the creation of a "Belgian" style.
Bagouet Collection
Hip-hop: a grassroots movement
Modern Dance and Its American Roots [1900-1930] From Free Dance to Modern Dance
At the dawn of the 20th century, in a rapidly changing West, a new dance appeared: Modern Dance. In the United States as in Europe, modern trends emerge simultaneously and intertwine in thier development. Let's dive into the beginnings of American modern dance!
Western classical dance enters the modernity of the 20th century: The Ballets russes and the Ballets suédois
If the 19th century is that of romanticism, the entry into the new century is synonymous of modernity! It was a few decades later that it would be assigned, a posteriori, the name of “neo-classical”.