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

fond dans la théâtralité. Dans Grosse Fugue(2001, entrée au répertoire du Ballet del’Opéra de Lyon en 2006), quatre femmes enrouge, sang et passion, se laissent traverserpar les vibrations du quatuor à cordes deBeethoven (La Grande Fugue). Les corps sefont musique, soulevés de sursauts, déchirésd’attaques brusques correspondant auxcoups d’archet qui disent les aspirations etles déceptions. Tension extrême d’une danseen liberté, dévorant l’espace. Courses éperduesqui manifestent, jusqu’à l’épuisement,l’urgence de vivre chaque instant comme sic’était le dernier.Programme 23 pièces signéesWilliam ForsytheSecond Detail (1991 - entrée au répertoiredu Ballet de l’Opéra de Lyon en 1995) meten mouvement, rouage après rouage, une« machine » humaine à danser : flot d’énergielibérée avec virtuosité s’interrompantsoudain, lignes d’intervenants se formantpuis se dissolvant aussi rapidement, sériesd’évolutions répétées se développant defaçon de plus en plus complexe. Une sortede Thème et Variations, à la manière d’unBalanchine « hard ». Avec Duo (1996), deuxdanseuses semblent rendre palpable letemps qui s’égrène : elles le filent, l’allongent,le déroulent en spirale, se répondanten miroir, ou s’imbriquant de façongémellaire, les interprètes s’empruntantet échangeant leur « matériel » chorégraphique.Enfin, One Flat Thing, Reproduced(2000 - entrée au répertoire du Ballet del’Opéra de Lyon en 2004) organise un parcourssauvage au milieu de grandes tablesdevenues radeaux ou surfaces habitablesentre ciel et terre : la danse s’ébauche etse déploie dans les passages entre, souset sur ces plates-formes, nous offrant unemultiplicité de points de vue différents surcet insolite déchaînement.Programme 3The Show must go on /Jérôme Bel(2001 - Entrée au répertoire du Ballet del’Opéra de Lyon en 2007)« Pour moi, c’est le spectateur qui fait lespectacle, c’est lui qui remplit les vides, quiprojette. Je ne dis rien, j’organise cettesubjectivité du spectateur. C’est aussi lemot pratique qui me plaît : donner desoutils, aussi petits soient-ils, donner d’aprèsune expérience personnelle, des moyensd’existence, comme le dit Deleuze à proposdes œuvres d’art. La vie comme œuvred’art, cela me semble plutôt pas mal commeprojet personnel! »Jérôme BelInfos +Compagnie invitée en 2006www.opera-lyon.comJosseline Le Bourhis,avec l’aimable autorisation de l’Opéra de LyonBallet de l’Opéra de Lyon /A classically trained company with acontemporary focusThe dancers are trained in various techniques,courtesy of the stylistic range they encounter.Over nearly 20 years, the company has builtup a substantial repertoire (70 pieces, 35 ofwhich it premiered) by enlisting choreographerswhose prime concern is language – evolvingit, inventing its surroundings and designing itsspace: the “post-modern“ Americans (TrishaBrown, Lucinda Childs, Bill T. Jones, RalphLemon, Stephen Petronio, Susan Marshall),the auteurs of movement (Jirí Kylián, Mats Ek,William Forsythe, Nacho Duato) and the explorersof new territories that weave gesture andimage (Frédéric Flamand, Philippe Decouflé or,recently, Mathilde Monnier). This forward-lookingmindset encompasses other, theatre-relatedtrends plus caustic revisits of gilt-edged classics(Cinderella as seen by Maguy Marin, Romeo andJuliet by Angelin Preljocaj and The Nutcrackerby Dominique Boivin). Ballet de l’Opéra de Lyon,you might say, currently reflects the world ofdance in movement. ■Yorgos LoukosProgramme 1À cet endroit / Odile DubocÀ cet endroit, which Ballet de l’Opéra de Lyonpremiered in June 2007, is a playful piece fora 15-dancer ensemble that breaks off intovariations, duets and trios, and enjoys a dialoguewith the specially-composed score. The costumes’pastel colours add deft touches to the greybackground of the set, like a landscape lit bygentle lights. A poetic, delicate work.Otomo / Boris CharmatzOtomo is a duet taken from Con Forts Fleuve.Here, Charmatz asks questions of dance (whichhe learned and performed with establishmentsand figures of proven value : the Opéra de Parisdance school, Lyon’s conservatory, Régine Chopinot,Odile Duboc) and reconsiders the very actof dancing from scratch – inventing constraints,putting obstacles in the body’s way, strippingthem bare or concealing them from view – in aconstant challenge to choreographic correctness.This duet for two men provided a dance templatefor Con Forts Fleuve, although it does notlook that way in the work : the latter is brokeninto eight bits, interrupted by lighting fade-outs,disrupted by John Giorno’s jerky words, mixedwith the bodies of the other protagonists…This initial duet is what will be performed here,gathered into a single score and reinterpretedby two Ballet de l’Opéra de Lyon dancers. Thisperformance marks the piece’s entry into thecompany’s repertoire.Grosse Fugue / Maguy MarinIn marked contrast is Maguy Marin’s visceralexpressiveness. The choreographer – currentlydirector of the national choreographic centre(CCN) in Rillieux-la-Pape – continues to delightand move us with powerful images often lacedwith subversive irony, and in which movementunfailingly fuses with her theatrical intent. InGrosse Fugue (2001, entered the Ballet del’Opéra de Lyon repertoire in 2006), four womenin red – blood and passion – let the vibrationsof a Beethoven string quartet (the Grand Fugue)course through them. Their bodies turn tomusic, lifted by leaps and torn apart by suddenbow-string assaults, that tell of aspirations anddisappointments. This is space-devouring danceat liberty, in an atmosphere of extreme tension.Frantic surges to the point of exhaustion conveythe urgent need to live each moment as if itwere the last.Programme 23 works createdby william ForsytheSecond Detail (1991, entered the Ballet del’Opéra de Lyon repertoire in 1995) sets ahuman dancing “machine” in motion, cog bycog. A flood of energy is released with virtuosoflair, stops suddenly; lines of figures form andrapidly dissolve; series of repeated evolutionsgrow increasingly complex. A kind of “themeand variations” exercise, like some “hard-core”Balanchine piece. In Duo (1996), two femaledancers render time’s passage seemingly palpable:they thread it, stretch it, unroll it in spirals,replying to themselves in the mirror or entwininglike twins; borrowing and trading theirchoreographic “gear”. Lastly, One Flat Thing,Reproduced (2000, entered the Ballet de l’Opérade Lyon repertoire in 2004) stages a wild journeyamid large tables that have become inhabitablerafts or surfaces between sky and earth: thedance is sketched and unfolded in passagewaysbetween, under and on these platforms, offeringus many viewpoints on this weird turmoil.Programme 3The Show must go on /Jérôme Bel(2001, entered the Ballet de l’Opéra de Lyonrepertoire in 2007)“To my mind, it is the spectator who really makesthe show, who fills the spaces, who projects.I say nothing, I organise the spectator’s subjectivity.What I also like is the practical side: startingfrom a personal experience, we provide tools – ifonly small ones – and means of existence, as Deleuzesaid about works of art. Life as a work ofart – that’s not a bad personal plan, I reckon!”Jérôme BelExtra info:The company performed at the 2006Biennalewww.opera-lyon.comJosseline Le Bourhis,courtesy of the Opéra de Lyon21