According to Freud, human beings “decided” to walk upright. The birth of culture is then supposed to be due to this vertical position. But what would happen if humans gave up this reference point – this axis point for thinking at all? What would it mean to lie, to stand, to walk, to dance, without recourse to the (over)view arising from this verticality?
Starting form this question, this new work by Laurent Chétouane examines the possibility of a different relationship to the body, to the other, to space and to the environment: a new orientation for exposed and fragile bodies who, in their fragility and borrowing from Judith Butler’s concept of “vulnerability,” experience the core of humanity beyond stable identities.
In the first part, three dancers share a “choreographed practice” of this horizontal body with the audience. While standing, the spectators find themselves in the midst of things, experiencing the main coordinates of this dance: the floor, hearing, falling. In the second part the bodies, inspired and accompanied by Bach’s “Partita Nr. 1” (in B minor for solo violin), try out various constellations of being together – among themselves and together with the violinist. A utopian possibility begins between the audience and the performers, the possibility of a “community of the vulnerable”.

After studying engineering and theatre (Sorbonne/Paris) Laurent Chétouane (born in 1973 in France) has been directing pieces for major German stages and at theatres all over Europe since 2001. At the same time he has produced eighteen dance pieces since 2006, which have all been invited to tour both inside and outside Europe. In 2012 and 2014 his dance pieces were invited to the German Dance Platform. Chétouane has been a visiting lecturer and professor at several art academies. He received the Wild Card at RUHR.2010 and in 2008 the scholarship of the Federal State of NRW for outstanding young artists. With his works, including “Sacré Sacre du Printemps”, “SOLI” and “KHAOS” he is recurrently present at HAU Hebbel am Ufer. laurentchetouane.com

Florence Casanave, born in France in 1983, studied ballet, jazz and contemporary dance at Epsedanse in Montpellier, and from 2004 to 2006 at P.A.R.T.S. in Brussels. Afterwards she has worked with choreographers such as Salia Sanou and Seydou Boro, Cécile Borne, Alessandra Piccolli, Christian and François Ben Aïm, Eleonore Didier and Anne Collod. “Out of Joint / Partita 1” is her first collaboration with Laurent Chétouane.

Moo Kim (South Korea) started his career as contemporary dancer in NYC and collaborated with young companies such as Gallim Dance and Sidra Bell Dance New York. Since moving to Europe in 2011, he has worked with Fabien Prioville, Helena Waldmann, Ana Borralho & Joao Gallant, Mouvoir, Sasha Waltz & Guests, Sergiu Mathis. After “BACH/ PASSION/JOHANNES” “Out of Joint / Partita 1” is his second collaboration with Laurent Chétouane.

Mikael Marklund is a dancer and choreographer of his own dance projects. From 2002 to 2004 he studied dance at the Swedish Ballet Academy in Stockholm, after which he continued his studies at P.A.R.T.S. in Brussels. During his education he created several of his own projects: “Untitled Trio” (2006), “King of my castle” (2007) and “Deep Ar-tificial Nonsense Concerning Everything” (2008). From 2009 to 2013 Marklund was a member of Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker’s company Rosas. The solo “O”, first performed at the Festival d’Avignon in 2012, was the first of eleven works with Laurent Chétouane.

Artiom Shishkov studied at the Republic Music College in Minsk from 1994 to 2002, and later with Eduard Kutchinsky at the Belarusian State Academy of Music. He gave his concert debut with the Belarusian State Philharmonic. From 2010 to 2012 he completed a post-graduate programme with Dora Schwarzberg at the University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna. He is the winner of a variety of competitions, has taken part in numerous international festivals and regularly appears with orchestras and as a soloist. He plays first violin in the Lipkind Quartet and combines his concert life with teaching and conducting master classes.

Sophie Reble, born in Zurich, studied costume design with Florence von Gerkan at the University of the Arts, Berlin. She has been collaborating with Laurent Chétouane since 2010. In addition she works as an independent costume designer in the areas of theatre, film and performance with Johannes Holmen Dahl, Ivna Zic and Martina-Sofie Wildberger at the Royal Dramatic Theatre Stockholm, at the Aalborg Teater, at Gessnerallee in Zurich, at the Duisburg Opera, at HAU Hebbel am Ufer, at Kampnagel in Hamburg, at the Luzerner Theater and at SIC! Raum für Kunst in Lucerne.

Philippe Gladieux, light designer, works in the area of dance and theatre. He works with Fabrice Lambert, Yves Noel Genod, Robert Cantarella, François Chaignaud and others. This is his first collaboration with Laurent Chétouane.

[Source: play bill]

TFB Nr. 1129