Pioneer of urban dance Anne Nguyen deep dives into the collective unconscious of the rebellious outcasts of our society: the “Underdogs”. Against a backdrop of soul music evocative of the political climate in 1970s America, three dancers proudly con­ front the invisible mass of their urban heritage. Through the gaze of the other and by coming face to face with their own inner antagonisms, they highlight the deep bonds that unite them, as well as the choices that set them apart.

French choreographer, writer and theatre director Anne Nguyen is a pioneer of urban dance based in Paris. With a background in martial arts and breakdance, she founded her company Compagnie Par Terre in 2005 and has since directed and toured multiple productions internationally. In 2013 she was awarded the Nouveau Talent Chorégraphie SACD prize and in 2015 she was appointed Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. She is currently an associate artist at Auditorium Seynod and Centre d’Art et de Culture de Meudon. Tanz im August welcomes her back after having presented her production “Kata” in 2019.
compagnieparterre.com

The artist is meant to seek into the unknown, to try and derive meaning from it. I concentrate on gesture as a symbol, the body as the object of ownership, movement as a primary need, the stage as a priority platform for sharing. I want to question the limits of our freedom, our image of freedom, our desire for freedom. Though choreography I want to build symbolic spaces where powerful, liberating, frenzied dance becomes a magical ritual designed to make us take a renewed interest in the present, in the potential of our own lives. When I produce a show, I try to engage the dancers and those who observe in a transformative experience. To choreograph is to show representatives of humanity projected in an image of a codified world. The bonds between these individuals, the bonds between them and their world, and the bonds between them and the ‘otherwhere’ represented by the audience, represent the path that each individual must follow, either as a performer or as an onlooker.
Anne Nguyen (2019)
The complete interview by Virve Sutinen with Anne Nguyen, “Seeking into the Unknown” (2019) can be found at tanzimaugust.de/magazin.

[Source: play bill]

TFB Nr. 1547