Danse Danse – Press Kit Compagnie Maguy Marin (France) : Salves p. 1

Compagnie Maguy Marin (France)

Salves

Maguy Marin

September 26. 27. 28 2013

Théâtre Maisonneuve, Place des Arts

Danse Danse – Press Kit Compagnie Maguy Marin (France) : Salves p. 2

SALVES

“Preparing to begin this new work, I recalled the idea from Lucretius1 De rerum natura that so filled us with enthusiasm for Turba: atoms perpetually in decline, but in their fall, deviating from their path. Lucretius called this deviation the clinamen. It is enough for a single atom to swerve slightly from its parallel trajectory for it to collide with other atoms - giving birth to a world, inventing new forms that may give rise to unimaginable consequences.

In parallel, using Franz Kafka's parable which served as a foundation for our last piece Description d'un combat, Hannah Arendt wrote that man, by his mere presence, opens a breach in the continuity of time between past and future, slightly deflecting antagonistic forces from their initial trajectory by creating a diagonal force resembling what physicists call a parallelogram of forces. Georges Didi-Huberman's book Survivance des Lucioles (survival of the fireflies)2 alludes to Walter Benjamin's concept of the 'loss of experience' that was provoked by the repetition of collective catastrophes in the twentieth century, which have transformed the present into a minefield of ruins deprived from being written into history - in other words, without memory and without future. Didi-Huberman suggests elevating this fall from grace, in each individual circumstance, to dignity, to new beauty, by making this poverty itself into an experience according to the lesson of Walter Benjamin, for whom decline is not disappearance.' As Benjamin said, it is necessary to 'organize pessimism'.

So we will work at bringing forth these resistant diagonal forces, sources of priceless moments that outlive fading memory, voices that from the depths of time give a sign.

Acting on our pessimism and our fears, we so escape the pervading anxiety crushing us and rendering us powerless, miserable and weary. A form that is light, flexible, mobile, and capable of going off on a tangent, allows us to dodge, as we want it to be indefinable, because we like to avoid the recognizable and expected.

Using staging that is lightweight, allows us to perform on small and medium sized stages in venues where audience capacity is limited.

All this, accompanied by seven performers, partners from previous pieces.”

Maguy Marin

                                                                                                                         1 Lucretius, On the Nature of Things, French translation by Bernard Pautrat, Éditions classiques de poche, 2002.

2 Georges Didi-Huberman, Survivance des lucioles, Éditions de Minuit, 2009.  

Danse Danse – Press Kit Compagnie Maguy Marin (France) : Salves p. 3

CRÉDITS SALVES

Conception Maguy Marin in collaboration with Denis Mariotte.

Dancers Ulises Alvarez, Romain Bertet, Kaïs Chouibi, Laura Frigato, Daphné Koutsafti, Mayalen Otondo, Jeanne Vallauri.

Assistant Ennio Sammarco.

Technical Direction and Lighting Design Alexandre Béneteaud.

Set Design Michel Rousseau.

Props Louise Gros and Pierre Treille.

Costume Design Nelly Geyres.

Sound Design Antoine Garry.

Stage Manager on tour Albin Chavignon.

Length 1 h 10

Compagnie Maguy Marin is supported by the Ministère de la Culture et de la Communication, Ville de Toulouse and Région Midi-Pyrénées.

The Montreal presentation is realized with Service de Coopération et d’Action Culturelle du Consulat Général de France à Québec.

The americain Salves tour receives the support of Ville de Toulouse, Service Culturel de l'Ambassade de France aux États-Unis, Institut Français à Paris and Institut Français à Mexico.

Bibl iography

Books that inspired Salves

Laurent Olivier, Le sombre abîme du temps, Seuil, 2008

Enzo Traverso, 1914-1945 La guerre civile européenne, Hachette Littératures, 2009

Enzo Traverso, L'histoire déchirée : essai sur Auschwitz et les intellectuels, Cerf, 1997

Sylvie Courtine-Denamy, Le souci du monde. Dialogue entre Hannah Arendt et quelques-uns de ses contemporains, Vrin, 1999

Georges Didi-Huberman, Survivance des lucioles, Editions de Minuit, 2009

Lucrèce, De la nature des choses, traduction par Bernard Pautrat, Editions classiques de poche, 2002

Book about Maguy Marin

Sabine Prokhoris, Le fil d’Ulysse – Retour sur Maguy Marin (+ CD / DVD), Les presses du réel, 2012

Danse Danse – Press Kit Compagnie Maguy Marin (France) : Salves p. 4

Maguy Marin – An Uncompromising Choreographer

Born in Toulouse to Spanish parents who fled the Franco regime, Maguy Marin has been creating since the 1970s socially conscious dance pieces that have made her one of the most important figures of new French dance. The many awards she has received include the prestigious Bessie Award for Umwelt (presented in Montreal in 2007). She is also one of the rare non-Americans to have received the American Dance Festival Award. She is now 61 and has some forty works to her credit, including pieces commissioned by companies such as the Ballet de l’Opéra in Lyon, the Ballet de l’Opéra in Paris and the Nerderlands Dans Theater III. Last year the Festival d’Automne de Paris featured a retrospective of her work, with select pieces from her repertoire presented at nine different sites.

Trained in classical ballet in Toulouse, Maguy Marin danced for the Ballet de Strasbourg before joining the first class of students in 1970 at the Mudra school, founded by Maurice Béjart in Brussels. Her vision of dance and choreography was totally transformed. After a brief collaboration with the theatre research group Chandra, she became a soloist in Béjart’s company, the Ballet du XXe siècle. It was during that period that she began creating her own dance pieces.

Among works from her early career, Nieblas de niño received first prize at the Bagnolet International Competition in 1978. Her style was already characterized by theatrical components that were not danced. May B, her most famous piece, reflects her radicalism and avant-gardism. Created in 1981 and presented several times in Montreal, it remains strikingly modern and relevant. The theme of “living together” found in all her work was already apparent. Since 1987 most of her pieces have been the result of close collaboration with the composer Denis Mariotte, with whom she shared the stage in the duo Ça quand même, co-written by both of them.

Compagnie Maguy Marin

Founded in 1980 in greater Paris, the Compagnie Maguy Marin moved to the Centre chorégraphique national (CCN) de Créteil et du Val-de-Marne in 1985. From the outset, the company has presented strong, disturbing works that break the established codes of dance and that are a clear reflection of protest against bourgeois society. Whether disparaged or praised, the performances are presented all over the world, and leave no one indifferent.

From 1998 to 2010, Maguy Marin was director of CCN de Rillieux-la-Pape in the Lyon region, where she welcomed several companies by means of artistic residencies, and also developed numerous dance awareness and outreach activities, transforming the centre into a citizens’ laboratory for art.

The works she has created over there are still powerful pieces that question the role of dance and that of the individual in society. Since 2004 she has emphasized the catastrophic state of the world and the urgent need to fully commit to real change. The most recent piece produced at CCN de Rillieux-la-Pape, Salves, seems destined to become as iconic as May B, which in 1981 clearly established a strong reputation for Compagnie Maguy Marin on the international scene. The company has been based in Toulouse since 2011.

Danse Danse – Press Kit Compagnie Maguy Marin (France) : Salves p. 5

The work – from 1979 to 2011

Danse Danse – Press Kit Compagnie Maguy Marin (France) : Salves p. 6

Danse Danse – Press Kit Compagnie Maguy Marin (France) : Salves p. 7

Press Quotes

Danse Danse – Press Kit Compagnie Maguy Marin (France) : Salves p. 8