BLOB choreographic installation for all, from 4 years old Conception, trapeze, dance: Clémence Coconnier, Emilie Gallier Music: Christian Mason Responsible for the techniques of hang: Pierres-Yves Guillaumin Costum design: Juliette Bogers Meidosems contact: C.Coconnier 00 33 6 12 27 35 70 / E.Gallier 00 31 6 16 67 33 16 / info@meidosems.com
Probing the moving space When a dancer and a trapezist meet and play with gravity laws. BLOB, it is a duet that explores the imaginary of air. The trapezist passes very close to the dances in the space in-between they occupy. Moving in the air, moved by terrestrial forces, they question our representation of space and our poetic relation to it: they nibble it, stretch it, are transformed by it. As the one can freeze, the other oscillates according to the self mobility of the trapeze. The meeting generates volume, a new space of the body and the location. The duet offers a priviledged time for perception. a performance for all, 15 minutes, in-situ the trapeze being settled by Pierres-Yves Guillaumin, round stage or half round, or bi-frontal stage, 100 to 150 spectators (according to the environment we invest)/ 1 to 4 performances per day/ pedagogic workshops on the thematics "Touching the air" by Clémence Coconnier - "Percei ving the location" by Emilie Gallier. Production déléguée: Thérèse n Thérèse. Coproduction: Meidosems, PØST Cie. Aide à la création: Pronomade(s) en Haute-Garonne - Centre National des Arts de la rue Avec le soutien de: la SACD dans le cadre du dispositif "Auteurs des Arts de la Rue", Espace Périphérique (ville de Paris - Parc de la Villette), Envie d'agir Basse- Normandie. spectacle accueilli en prêt de salle à l'usine, lieu conventionné dédié aux arts de la rue What is a BLOB? It refers to the english word that expresses the shape and the life of a drop. In architecture, it defines an irregular and round shape. In biology, it evoques the cell. To us it is a protective shell in which we enter, betwwen the shy and the ground, to explore a space in evolution. 2
Writing : imaginary, physical forces, mobility Swallowed by a celest attraction, we are raising the question of directions. If it follows the interpreter, whatever his position, the down could be the sky; when the interpreter is upside-down. We are writing scores with invertions, playing with our habits and marks: what if the up would be the ground, the down in the sky, the front in my back and vice vers... The duet plays with the proximity of the bodies: the down of the trapeze artist is the up of the dancer. The difference of the support is a fantastic inspiration: the trapeze is mobile, while the ground is stable, motionless? We elaborates "material-words" that motivate our dance and awake perceptions: minimal transformation in the body, direction of the movement, relation to each other and to the audience. We compose with point of views in the way of a film maker. The choreographic lexicon is at the beginning of the score we write. This score is the same for the two interpreters. We write it with words - that stimulate the poesy, the imagination - and symboles that are taken from Laban cinetography - they indicate in an objective way the direction, trajectory, leveles of the movement. What is the impact of words on the imagination? Our use of the words is meant to awake our imagination, we try with them to define a poetic relation to the space we invest, discover and play with. What is it to nibble the space around, to widden our buble? How would I move if I imagine I am carrying a phasme on my arm? We invite liquid creatures from the universe of Chihiro in our BLOB, to enjoy a little dance with them! How to continue writing and discovering new qualities of movement with new words? The delicious tingle of an unusual floor. To find a support on our fingertips, or toes. Having as a floor the reduce space of the trapeze. We enjoy support experiences that are generated by the space and materials of our BLOB. 3
Investing public spaces The duet is conceived to be played in every kind of locations: under a tree, in the black box of a theater, between two house like floating in the sky, in an atrium... Stage design, costums, and minimalistic music invite the environment to involve in the duet, and integrate the spectator for him to perceive even the movements of the air. The audience is seating very close to the dancers. The trapeze hangs form one point and oscillates. It changes the usual vision of this circus apparatus and offers new point of view. The bar is low, (90cm), the dancers almost touch each other, come close, attract, and draw lines and densities between their bodies. Costums are transforming and underlining line of the body. Intermingled, the interpreters can make one unique shape, blobesque. New bodies emerge. Time flies, streches in the continuity of the dance, in the lanscape of the sounds, infinite. Insolites space of the body Costums are inspired of the universe of Erwin Wurm. How to transform and play with new spaces of the bady created by the clothes, and the environment (the othher, the ground, the trapeze). 4
Clémence Coconnier, chorégraphe trapéziste Trapeze artist and choreographer. She explores the contact between air and body. After a circus training at the Lido school in Toulouse she gets formed by Lili Dehais and Zoé Maistre in Paris, and in contemporary dance with the choreographers Myriam Gourfink, Benoît Lachambre, Rachid Ouramdane, Kitsou Dubois. Her research about the writing of circus movements brings her first to the writing of a DEA about bodies of the circus (Institut d Etudes Théâtrales de l Université Paris 3, 2004) and to the exploration of movement guided by the sensation of air and the relation to gravity laws. In 2005, modifying the traditionnel circus trapeze, she collaborates with Pénélope Hausermann and creates the numéro «Trapézi» (festival Furies Chalons en Champagne, bourse d auteurs «Numéros neufs» de la SACD). Then, questionning vertigo, and the sensations trapeze generate on spectators, she creates «Vertige», trapeze, dance and electric guitare with Olivier Benoit (festival 100 Dessus Dessous La Villette, 2007) : scores are written on the extreme streching of a sound, a movement. In 2008, she wishes to formalize this practice and enter the training program for choreographer «Transforme L espace» directed bymyriam Gourfink (Centre de Recherche et de Composition Chorégraphique de Royaumont). She develops hers observations of minimas and a visual writing of space and body. Within Meidosms, her company, her projects are conceived with other practices to create environment the explore the body as a mean for percpetive experiences. Émilie Gallier, Trained at the RIDC (Paris) and the Arts University of Rennes, Emilie Gallier,choreographer, specified her path as she entered the program Transforme L espace, directed by Myriam Gourfink (Royaumont) and studied the Laban cinetography at the Conservatoire National de Paris. Her works evolved within a European context. 2004: she took part in a one-year project for contemporary dance s diffusion in West-Norway. She creates Ambiance with Øyvind Lyslo. She involved in projects in Lithuania, Norway, France, Slovenia. These first researches show a will to translate perceptions. Space and duality are her concerns. The duets PAM S KITCHEN, faces and BLOB all underline the questions of perception and relation. Her process is driven by poetic of words, contemplation aleatory writing. Meetings (Clémence Coconnier, Matthieu Chevallier) are strong impulses, and she builds within dialogues and collaborations; that she deepens in the Master in choreography of ArtEZ in Arnhem (Netherlands) 5
Contact Contact administration: Thérèse Toustou 0033 6 74 09 18 66 / 00 33 5 6107 14 29, theresett@orange.fr Artists Clémence Coconnier 0033 6 12 27 35 70 clemcoconnier@yahoo.fr, Emilie Gallier 0031 6 16 67 33 16 emiliegallier@gmail.com appendix a sketch of BLOB's score 6
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