Retour en Avant / Past Forward Biennale de la Danse Lyon - France

virevoltes et les bras de Carolyn Carlson ontimprimé les mémoires à travers ce solo, àla fois somme et exploration des possibles.L’inspiration de la pièce est marquée parVenise et par un élément biographique : lamaternité de Carolyn Carlson. Cet événementa modifié en profondeur sa consciencedu monde et de l’existence. Cette perceptiondes horizons humains tisse la structurede Blue Lady, fascinante galerie de portraitsféminins qui embrasse l’espace d’une vie.De par leurs origines, Carolyn Carlson etTero Saarinen partagent une forme d’âmefinlandaise faite de distance au réel, d’imprévisibilitéet d’ironie. Ce rapport au réelparticulier fait partie intégrante de BlueLady. Alors que la pièce était encore engestation, Carolyn Carlson a visité un hôpitalpsychiatrique vénitien. Elle s’est particulierementinspirée des regards inquiets et desyeux emplis de méfiance d’un aliéné. C’estune des dimensions de l’œuvre qu’investiraTero Saarinen.Double vision / création2006 / solo interprété parCarolyn CarlsonDouble Vision est une rencontre transdisciplinaireentre deux artistes, la chorégrapheétoileCarolyn Carlson le jeune groupe decréation Electronic Shadow, composé de l’architecteNaziha Mestaoui et du réalisateurYacine Aït Kaci, qui en faisant littéralementfusionner l’espace et l’image proposent denouveaux types de perception. Consacrantcette rencontre, ce solo propose au publicune chorégraphie globale de la scène, danslaquelle le corps, celui de Carolyn Carlson,orchestre, dans un solo chorégraphique,un univers qui s’étend sur toute une scèneque la technologie a rendue vivante. Lascène devient l’extension du geste, il n’y aqu’une seule image, la scène elle-même ;la technologie est transparente, laissant laplace à l’émotion d’une perception décaléede la réalité. Le spectacle est une ode àl’imaginaire, une double vision de la réalité,un poème visuel et sonore sur la relativitéde nos perceptions, une vision au-delà dela vue. Le temps et l’espace se plient et sedéplient dans un cycle éternel dont la duréedu spectacle est une tranche perceptible.Comment le passé peut-il dessiner l’avenir ?Nous sommes une nébuleuse de souvenirs à partirdesquels nous dessinons et construisons les œuvresde nos vies. Quand un événement a lieu, il ne se réduitpas à une seule chose : le passé, le présent, le futur ysont tous contenus simultanément.Carolyn CarlsonL’essence de l’art n’est pas de répondre à l’actualité.C’est d’être un catalyseur de la pensée et du changement,et d’être un déclencheur d’expériences.David RobertsonInfos +Blue Lady / recréation pour la Biennalewww.ccn-roubaix.comCarolyn CarlsonCarolyn Carlson was born in California toparents of Finnish origin. She studied dance atthe San Francisco School of Ballet and at theUniversity of Utah, where she met Alwin Nikolaisin 1965; for seven years, she was an emblematicfigure of his New York-based company. Duringthis period she travelled the world, and in 1968won the best dancer award at the FestivalInternational de Danse in Paris. She then joinedAnne Béranger’s company as soloist and choreographer;in 1972 her first piece, Rituel pour unrêve mort, was staged in the courtyard of thePapal Palace in Avignon. In 1974, she met RolfLiebermann – a watershed moment. He broughther to the Opéra de Paris as star choreographer,and in 1975 invited her to run the opera house’stheatre research group (GRTOP). She createdmore than 25 works between 1974 and 1980,including Density 21,5; The Architects; This, Thatand the Other; and Slow, Heavy and Blue. In1974, she began introducing the dancers to herimprovisation and composition technique. From1980-1985, she worked at the Teatro la Fenicein Venice, creating her emblematic solo BlueLady (1983), before returning to Paris and to hernew base, the Théâtre de la Ville (1985-1991).She then had a two-year residency in Finlandbefore taking over as artistic director of theCullberg Ballet in Stockholm (1994-1995).In between choreographic activities, she experimentswith “improvisation shows” in collaborationwith her favourite dancers (Larrio Ekson,Jorma Uotinen, Malou Airaudo) and musicians(Michel Portal, John Surman, René Aubry,Joachim Kuhn, Trilok Gurtu); and continues tocreate works for the repertoires of the ParisOpera Ballet (Signes) and the Bordeaux Opera(Hydrogen Jukebox), among others.While director of the dance section of the VeniceBiennale (1999-2002), Carolyn created Parabola(1999), Light Bringers (2000), J. Beuys Song(2001) and Writings on Water (2002). She hasalso founded a contemporary-dance academyand a festival. In 1999, she established the Atelierde Paris-Carolyn Carlson with backing fromthe City of Paris; it quickly became a leadingfacility for the professional training of dancersand for supporting the creation of new work.Since 2004, Carolyn Carlson has been artisticdirector of the national choreography centre inRoubaix, northern France. In 2006 she receivedthe first Golden Lion ever awarded to a choreographerby the Venice Biennale. Her stunninglymasterful dance, constantly striving for poetry, isinformed by her encounters with great creatorssuch as the composers Philip Glass, René Aubry,Gavins Bryars, Kaija Saariaho and dancers includingLarrio Ekson, Jorma Uotinen, Marie-ClaudePietragalla, Dominique Mercy and Tero Saarinen.Blue Lady / 1983, revisited in2008 / solo interpreted by TeroSaarinenCarolyn Carlson’s Blue Lady premiered on 11 October1983 at the Teatro La Fenice in Venice. Thepiece caused a sensation and was performed forten years all over the world. Blue Lady markedthe blossoming of a major creative talent andperformer who had reached artistic maturity andachieved an incredible richness of movement.Music by René Aubry, enormous Venetian blinds,a tree and swirling dresses and hats create apoetic environment for a flamboyant dance.Carolyn Carlson’s spinning body and arm gestureshave left their mark on memories in a solowork that is both the sum and the explorationof possibilities. The inspirations for the pieceare Venice and Carolyn Carlson’s entry intomotherhood. This event profoundly changedher consciousness of the world and of existence.Blue Lady is structured on her perception of humanhorizons; it is a fascinating gallery of femaleportraits spanning the space of one life.Through their origins, Carolyn Carlson and TeroSaarinen share a Finnish soul built on distancefrom reality, unpredictability and irony. Thisdistinctive relationship with reality forms anintegral part of Blue Lady. When the piece wasat the planning stage, Carolyn Carlson visited apsychiatric hospital in Venice and was especiallyinspired by the anxiety and suspicion she sawin the eyes of the mentally ill patients. This is adimension of the work that Tero Saarinen willconcentrate on.Double Vision / 2006 creation /solo interpreted by CarolynCarlsonDouble Vision is a cross-disciplinary encounterbetween two artists: star choreographer CarolynCarlson and young creative platform ElectronicShadow, comprising architect Naziha Mestaouiand film director Yacine Aït Kaci, who proposenew types of perception by literally fusing spaceand imagery. This solo is the record of theirencounter. It offers the audience a choreographythat encompasses and integrates dancer andstage; Carolyn Carlson’s body orchestrates aworld that stretches right across a stage broughtto life by technology. The stage becomes the extensionof gesture; there is only one image, thestage itself; the technology is transparent, givingway to the emotion of a disjointed perceptionof reality. The show is an ode to the imaginedworld, a double vision of reality, a poem ofvision and sound about the relativity of our perceptions,a vision beyond sight. Time and spacefold and unfold in an eternal cycle, of which thelength of the show is a perceptible period.How can the past shape the future?We are a bank of memories from which we draw andconstruct our life works. There isn’t just one thinghappening; past present future - all are contained inthis simultaneity of events.Carolyn CarlsonThe idea of the arts is not to be the response to whatis going on. It’s to be a catalyst for thought andchange and an opening up of experience.David RobertsonExtra info:Blue Lady / recreated for the Biennalewww.ccn-roubaix.com15