I am sitting in a room
Teaser2021 - Director : WLDN, RĂ©alisation
Choreographer(s) : Leighton, Joanne (Belgium)
Present in collection(s): WLDN / Joanne Leighton
I am sitting in a room
Teaser2021 - Director : WLDN, RĂ©alisation
Choreographer(s) : Leighton, Joanne (Belgium)
Present in collection(s): WLDN / Joanne Leighton
I am sitting in a room
A study in movement of the sitting position, I am sitting in a room is performed by four poetic clowns to the eponymous text by American composer Alvin Lucier. This renowned sound work, created in 1969, involves the recording, playback and re-recording of a spoken text. Throughout the course of the work, the sound of Lucier's voice is gradually transformed by the acoustics of the room, a process that smoothes out any irregularities in the speech of the reader, who speaks with a stutter.
The choreographic work echoes the same process, using Lucier's musical composition as a score, a guiding thread and also as an instruction booklet. Throughout the performance, the repetative act of 'sitting' in its various states and possibilities undergoes a series of transformations, becoming at times sculptural, at times highly performative and burlesque. Portraying the figure of the clown, one of the most reproduced figures in our western world, the dancers engage in this act of 'sitting', that of giving and distributing one’s weight and body mass, both individually and collectively, in this witty and iconic dance piece.
"This piece focuses on the complicity that can exist between people in these troubled times, highlighting the act of sharing and mutual support." JL
/ TEXT
"I am sitting in a room different from the one you are in now. I am recording the sound of my speaking voice and I am going to play it back into the room again and again until the resonant frequencies of the room reinforce themselves so that any semblance of my speech, with perhaps the exception of rhythm, is destroyed. What you will hear, then, are the natural resonant frequencies of the room articulated by speech. I regard this activity not so much as a demonstration of a physical fact, but more as a way to smooth out any irregularities my speech might have." — Alvin Lucier
Leighton, Joanne
Based in Paris Ile-de-France, Joanne Leighton is a Belgian-Australian choreographer and pedagogue. Her professional career is linked to an original, dynamic and constantly evolving vision of dance and her discourse is permeated by an emphasis on dialogue and exchange, both with the public and with her artistic collaborators. Central to her work lies the notion of site, territory and identity, which are for Joanne Leighton interdependent spaces.
Joanne Leighton is the representative choreographer of the administrative council of the SACD (French Society of Composers and Dramatic Authors) and the Beaumarchais 2018 – 2020. She is also a member of the administrative council of La Maison du Geste et de l'Image in Paris.
After dancing in the Australian Dance Theater (1986-1991), Joanne Leighton moved to Europe, living and performing in London for 2 years. Her company Velvet was formed in Brussels from 1993 - 2010, where she established her choreographic work, active for over 18 years. She was choreographer in residence at the Raffinery - Charleroi/Danses (2003-2005) and Les Halles de Schaerbeek (2005-2007). In 1994 and in 2010 she received the SACD Prize (Society of Composers and Dramatic Authors) for her choreographic work. Joanne Leighton has been commissioned to create work for international companies such as the Dance Theater of Ireland (2001); in Belgium for Charleroi Danses (2005); in France for the Ballet de Lorraine (2014) and in Switzerland for the company Marchepied (2015).
Director of the National Choreographic Center of Franche-Comté in Belfort in France (2010 – 2015), Joanne Leighton formed WLDN in 2015. WLDN is a project, philosophy and platform for her choreographic research and creation. Her works have been performed nationally and internationally in theaters, urban and industrial spaces, art galleries, town squares, on rooftops and presented on screens and smartphones. Joanne Leighton's choreographic work has been co-produced and presented on international stages for over 20 years, with over 30 productions touring to France, Germany, Belgium, Denmark, Spain, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Morocco, Netherlands, Wales, the United Kingdom, Australia and Cuba.
Joanne Leighton’s choreographic work includes Corps Exquis (2019) a piece for 3 dancers around an exquisite corpse for 58 choreographers; I am sitting in a room, a movement study of the sitting position performed by four poetic clowns on the eponymous text by American composer Alvin Lucier; Exquisite Corpse (2012) an exquisite corpse for 7 dancers ; Made in…Series, a large scale ‘architecture in movement’ for 99 participants performed in situ and (re)created in France, Denmark, Germany, Australia, Switzerland, Cuba; The Modulables, a series of site-specific pieces between installation and performance with an ambulatory public, which have been evolving over a period of 10 years. In 2014, Joanne Leighton and the director Christoph Frick co-sign Melting Pot for 9 young performers from immigrant backgrounds, a cultural exchange between the Theater Freiburg, the CCN of Belfort and Junges Theater Basel. Chair Dances, an evolutive virtual digital gallery comprising over 30 short choreographic films by diverse choreographers involving chairs, was initiated by Joanne Leighton in 2010.
In 2015 Joanne Leighton initiated a trilogy of works which will span 5 years with her signature piece 9000 Steps, performed by six dancers on a bed of salt to the music Drumming, Steve Reich. This work was followed in 2018 with Songlines, for eight dancers, created to the fascinating musical composition In C by Terry Riley. This trilogy will conclude with her production People United in 2021.
In September 2011, Joanne Leighton launched her large scale work, The Vigil, whereby each morning and evening at sunrise and sunset over 365 days, a participant holds watch over the city for one hour, a work for 730 inhabitants and performed over 365 consecutive days. Around these same principals this choreography has been mounted for the towns Belfort (September 2011 – September 2012) ; Laval (15th September 2012 – 15th September 2013) ; Rennes (30th September 2012 – 29th September 2013) Haguenau (1st January – 31st December 2015), Freiburg, Germany (20th June 2015 – 19th June 2016) and Evreux, France for the Le Tangram, Scène Nationale (22nd September 2017 – 22nd September 2018) ; Dordrecht, for the Schouwburg Kunstmin in Holland (1st Mai 2019 – 30th April 2020) , and eigth project, The Graz Vigil Austria (1st January 2020 - 31st December 2020) for La Strada, is currently in performance. The MĂ¼nich Vigil - TĂ¼rmer MĂ¼nchen, is due to start shortly (12th December 12th 2020 - 12th December 2021) ; along with The Hull Vigil (20th March 2021 - 19th March 2022) for the Freedom Festival of Hull in the United Kingdom.
In parallel to this work, Joanne Leighton initiated a series of walking pieces as with Walk#1 Belfort – Freiburg, where she walked a path between two Vigil sites by following waterways over 127 kms in four days. Since 2014 these ‘walking dances’ are part of her choreographic practice. In September 2017, Joanne Leighton mounted Walk, a performance over 25 km linking the four theaters of Paris RĂ©seau Danse, with an open call for participants to join her. Her work Salt Circle concluded this unique event at Atelier de Paris/CDCN. Her walking projects such as Walking as Remembering (2019) weave into her choreographic practice and stage work.
An internationally recognized pedagogue, Joanne Leighton regularly gives lectures and workshops. She has taught for companies such as Jean-Claude Gallotta, Catherine Diverrès, Angelin Preljocaj, Trisha Brown Company, Batsheva Company, Charleroi / Danses, AMNT in Tokyo, Need Company, Rosas, Wim Vandekeybus, and dance centers like the Seoul International Choreographic Center (South Korea); The Menagerie de Verre, Paris; Centre National Danse in Paris; Atelier de Paris / CDCN; PARTS; Dansens House in Copenhagen; and the Croatian Institute for Movement and Dance / Zagreb Dance Center. She has also taught in art schools such as the fine arts school in Toulouse.
Interested in finding new ways of being, doing, thinking, working, making and presenting, Joanne Leighton seeks to embrace a radically different approach to access, ownership, and authorship in contemporary dance performance.
WLDN, RĂ©alisation
WLDN / Joanne Leighton
WLDN is a project and a philosophy at the same time. The title references the renowned book Walden by Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862), American essayist, teacher, philosopher, naturalist and poet. This novel, published in 1854, influenced many schools of thought and served as a reference for those seeking to reconnect with basic values. Thoreau recounts his two years experience living independently in the middle of nature.
WLDN can be portrayed as a kind of ‘transcendental striptease’, which represents for me coming back to the fundamental essence and a simplifying of work, of stripping down, but also, back to the most elemental, even the most primordial aspects of performance in terms of dance, movement, and site. This simplicity can and does involve stage work and public space work but also includes productions of the kind of work that can easily be documented and published with the tools at hand which includes platforms such as social media : iphone, internet, facebook…
What is it in Thoreau’s action that can be mirrored in our changing cultural landscape with the contemporary tools we have in creating, recording, notating, publishing, dissemination ?
I am sitting in a room
Choreography : Joanne Leighton
Interpretation : Marion Carriau, Alexandre da Silva, Marie Fonte, Arthur PĂ©role
Original music : Alvin Lucier avec la permission de Lovely Music
Lights : Sylvie MĂ©lis
Costumes : Alexandra Bertaut
Settings : Tovo & Jamil
Sound : Peter Crosbie
Production / Coproduction of the choreographic work : Production WLDN | Co-Production by Theater Freiburg | Centre Chorégraphique National de Caen - Basse-Normandie, accueil studio | Centre Chorégraphique National de Tours, résidence de création | WLDN est subventionnée par le ministère de la Culture et de la Communication |
Production / Coproduction of the video work : Les films de l'Ă©phĂ©mère, rĂ©alisĂ© le 4 dĂ©cembre 2018 au thĂ©Ă¢tre Berthelot une programmation de l'Atelier de Paris / CDCN | RĂ©alisation Antoine Billet | Images Antoine Billet et Pierre Liguanotto | Akka crĂ©ations
Duration : 50 minutes
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