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

Sophie TabakovAt the age of 14, Sophie Tabakov decided todevote herself to dance. She trained with WesHoward, Margaret Jenkins and Michel HalletEghayan, of whose company she was a memberfrom 1984-1990.There she met Laurent Soubise, with whom shefounded Anou Skan in 1993.She was awarded the Prix Villa Médicis Hors LesMurs for the “Day Woman” project to researchthe ritual dances of the American Indians nativeto the north-west Pacific coast of the USA. Andshe studied the sacred art of whirling with JavadTeranian, an Iranian whirling dervish.From 1996 to 1998, she trained in sacred chantswith Sister Marie Keyrouz.She continues to study the traditional dancesof the Balkans, with artists from Bulgaria (MaiaMihneva) and Greece (Dora Stratou DanceTheater).Within Anou Skan, Laurent and Sophie togetherexplore the idea of continuity, which in mathematicsis rigorously defined as used to “describephenomena that do not jump suddenly butevolve gradually”.Her most recent pieces have reflected a needto transform the floor into a wonderful dancepartner, but also into a stage-decor item in itself.Black sand covers a giant picture for the solo UnLabyrinthe (2002); flames lick the dancers’ feetin Temps de feu (2004); 13 tonnes of pebblesand 2,500 candles are arranged in a spiral forLabyrinthe Lumière (2005 and 2006) and orientalrugs help conjure the scene in Scène Nomade(2006).Chant VI /premiering at theBiennalePiece for three dancers andan actor/narratorIn Book VI of Virgil’s Aeneid,the hero Aeneas enters the kingdomof the dead to see his fatherAnchises again.Guided by two doves and the prophetessSibyl, he undertakes a journey beyond time,in an intermediate space: hell.In another age and place, Tabakov’s grandfatherwas shut in. Preparing to die in his cell,he laid down his sole remaining possession: anovercoat.We can imagine these crossings giving rise toa dance towards the unspeakable, in whichpresent, past and future merge; in which thebody, in its living totality, is defined by sovereigngestures.The narrator’s voice, reading from the Aeneid,accompanies the dancers’ every step.This work is also a tribute to the œuvre of TheoAngelopoulos.Contre-ChantAfter the show, Anou Skan will give a fullreading of Book VI of Virgil’s Aeneid at the FourvièreGallo-Roman Museum. On 18 September,at 8pm.How can the past shape the future ?While looking for my roots, I found rootedness, andbecame a dancer. As a dancer, I investigate wherethings flow from – from memory, time, space. It’s akind of ritual with continuing and renewed gestures,cutting through all the forgotten layers. The past is likea fossil-ray through me. Past, present and future arethe same tense... the same time coursing through myveins. When I dance, I have the past in my bones, thefuture in my feet, and the present in my breath. Yetthe future is not written. And so dancing becomes atestimony to my wanderings between continuity andthe unknown.Sophie TabakovExtra info:World PremiereCompany performed at 2004 Biennalewww.anouskan.fr23