Since their teenage years, Cecilia Bengolea and François Chaignaud have been going to discos and have turned it into a place where to practise. From London to NYC, they go from club to club: drum&bass, jungle, dubstep, reggae, bashement, house, voguing, hype as anthropological research centres. That is where they have become familiar with and learnt Jamaican dancehall, krump, house, split & jump… – dances which, regardless of their formal and spiritual differences, have a certain playfulness in common (with music, and between the technical principles and the ideals determining them).
As for altered Natives’ Say Yes To Another Excess ⎯ TWERK, they collectively and intuitively make their way through a specific impure writing process, enlightened by graphic and organic devoured dances – beyond references. Together with Alex Mugler, Ana Pi and Elisa Yvelin, they have set themselves the challenge to trust dance, its expressive, brotherly, poetic, preconscious and discursive powers.
This work and this playful writing process are achieved in close relation to a musical investigation around Grime music. As an electro music that comes from East London in the early 2000s, Grime combines, mixes and transforms sounds from dancehall, hip-hop and UK garage.
The syncretic ferociousness of this style, which seems to be hanging between two contradictory speeds, between the abstraction of synthetic sounds and MCs’ sensual emergency, interacts with the various influences which have inspired the dances. It is the first time that DJs from the Grime scene (Elijah and Skilliam of London label Butterz) play in a theatre and collaborate with contemporary dancers.
CREATION TEAM
Conception Cecilia Bengolea, François Chaignaud
Performers Cecilia Bengolea, François Chaignaud, Alex Mugler, Ana Pi, Élisa Yvelin
DJs Elijah et Skilliam (Butterz Record, London)
Lighting design Jean-Marc Segalen, Cecilia Bengolea et François Chaignaud
Technical director Dominique Palabaud assisted by Juliette Besançon
Music advisor Miguel Cullen
Consultant advisor Alexandre Roccoli
Costumes Cecilia Bengolea, François Chaignaud
Administration/production Cécile Vermorel
Tour planning Sarah de Ganck/ART HAPPENS
COPRODUCTION
Biennale de la danse de Lyon, Les Spectacles Vivants – Centre Pompidou Paris, Festival d’Automne à Paris, Centre de Développement Chorégraphique Toulouse/Midi-Pyrénées, Centre Chorégraphique National de Franche-Comté – Belfort, Centre Chorégraphique National de Grenoble, Le Vivat d’Armentières – Scène conventionnée danse et théâtre, Centre Chorégraphique National de Caen/Basse-Normandie.
WITH THE HELP FROM
Production funded by Arcadi, Chez Bushwick – NYC (development residence), FUSED: French U.S. Exchange in Dance, a program of the New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Dance Project, the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in the United States, and FACE (French American Cultural Exchange), with lead funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the Florence Gould Foundation.
With the support of La Ménagerie de verre (Paris)
SPECIAL THANKS TO
Elisabeth Schwartz, Warren, Mike, Sarah Chaumette, Alexandre Paulikevitch, Blazin Twins, Boot Dance Camp, Marie-Thérèse Allier, Frédéric Perouchine, Courtney Juicy Couture, Laurent Vinauger.
