(The Rite of Spring) (2007)

This  “Rite” proceeds from an inversion: instead of a choreography for  dancers, in an umpteenth variation of the iconic piece written by  Nijinsky, Xavier Le Roy sets about staging the gestures of the conductor  as he directs the performance of Stravinsky’s music. Inspired by a  documentary about the Berlin Philharmoniker, Rhythm is it!, the  choreographer examines the relationship between music and movement  while upsetting their order of causality. For, such gestures are the  real motors of music as much as they are determined by it, in a way that  intention and execution seem to become mingled. What Xavier Le Roy  calls the “synchronising machine”, of seeing and hearing, is thus based  on the possibility of an aesthetic, temporal community between the  conductor, the spectators and the musicians. The bodily experience of  listening is accordingly no longer apprehended as a purely auditory  phenomenon, but as an incarnated process, out-smarting the expectations  of the public and reinventing the conditions of their reception.

Source: program of the CND

Xavier Le Roy holds a doctorate in molecular biology from the  University of Montpellier, France, and has worked as artist since 1991.  Since 2018 works as Professor at the Institute for Applied Theater  Studies in Giessen (Germany). He has performed with diverse companies  and choreographers. From 1996 to 2003, he was artist-in-residence at the  Podewil in Berlin. In 2007-2008 he was “Associated Artist”at Centre  Chorégraphique National de Montpellier, France. In 2010 Le Roy is an  Artist in Residence fellow at the MIT Program in Art Culture and  Technology (Cambridge, MA). In 2012, he begins a 3 years residency at  Théâtre de la Cité Internationale, Paris. Through his solo works such as  « Self Unfinished (1998) » and « Product of Circumstances (1999) », he  has opened new perspectives in the field of choreography.

At the same time, he initiated projects exploring the modes of  production and collaboration in group works: "E.X.T.E.N.S.I.O.N.S."  (1999-2000), "Project" (2003) and "6 Months 1 Location" (2008).
His  works such as the soli "Le Sacre du Printemps" (2007), "Untitled"  (2014), the group piece "low pieces" (2011), and works for exhibition  spaces such as "production" (2011) created together with Mårten  Spångberg, "Untitled" (2012) for the exhibition 12 Rooms,  "Retrospective" first realized in 2012 at the Tapiès  Foundation-Barcelona, "Temporary Title, 2015" created at Sydney in the  frame of John Kaldor Public Art Project or "For The Unfaithful Replica"  (2016) in collaboration with Scarlet Yu at CA2M Madrid; produce  situations that explore the relationships between spectactors / visitors  / performers and the production of subjectivities.

His works produce situations that question, the relationships between  spectators/visitors and performers and are attempt to transform or  reconfigure dichotomies such as: object / subject, animal / human,  machine / human, nature / culture, public / private, form / unform.

In 2017, together with Ensemble Issho Ni they create for the Ensemble  Modern in Frankfurt: the exhibition "Haben Sie "Modern" gesagt?", and  he developped, together with Scarlet Yu, "Still Untitled", a work for  public spaces commissioned by Skulptur Projekte Münster 2017.

Source: Xavier Leroy website

More information: www.xavierleroy.com/

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.).