“Gustavia” brings together two choreographers with utterly divergent dance backgrounds who nevertheless are driven by common questions about the future of art and representation. Drawing on the techniques and codes of classical burlesque, Mathilde Monnier and La Ribot experiment with this art form of transformations and role reversals to test out its use in dance. With striking body language and a sense of humour, they also touch on timeless themes such as femininity, self-presentation and the theatre, in order to then ask the question of whether it is still possible today for an artist to exert an influence on society.

Choreographer Mathilde Monnier has been the artistic director of the Centre Chorégraphique National de Monpellier since 1994. Her choreographic works consistently draw connections with other artistic disciplines, and she has collaborated with figures such as Jean-Luc Nancy, Christine Angot, La Ribot and Heiner Goebbels. Her choreographic works, numbering more than 40 in total, have been shown at the Festival d’Avignon, and in Paris, New York, Vienna, Berlin and London. In 1999 Mathilde Monnier was awarded the Grand Prix National des Arts du Spectacle Vivant. She has been the director of the Centre National de la Danse Pantin since 2014.

Born in Madrid in 1962 and now based in Geneva, La Ribot is a choreographer, dancer, director and visual artist; a radically multidisciplinary creator. Her work has its origins in movement, the body, and her own background in dance, to which she adds other practices, systems and materials as they become necessary. From the beginning of her career her work has included live performance, video, speech, sign language, found art, installations and ‘relational’ works. She has involved different communities in her performances and videos, both professional colleagues and people with no experience in the world of art. Her works have been presented at the Tate Modern, London, the Centre Pompidou, Paris, the Panorama Festival, Rio de Janeiro, Impulstanz, Vienna and Art Basel.

[Source: play bill]

TFB Nr. 1091