May B [transmission 2016]

Extrait remonté par le groupe Désoblique (Oullins), responsable artistique Blandine Martel Basile, dans le cadre de Danse en amateur et répertoire (2015)

Choreography by Maguy Marin
An extract remodelled by the group Désoblique (Oullins), artistic manager Blandine Martel Basile, as part of the “Danse en amateur et repertoire” programme (2015) (a programme created to assist and promote amateur dancing).

The group
Set up in 2010, the association Désoblique, led by Blandine Martel Basile and based in Oullins (Rhône), proposes a regular contemporary dance class. It brings together a small group of experienced female dancers, passionate about choreographic creation. Their participation in workshops is often combined with group outings to attend shows. For its work, the association uses the training centre Désoblique, installed in the Nouveaux Ateliers de la danse, Oullins. 

The project
May B, created in 1981, is one of the major works of Maguy Marin and of the history of dance. The two extracts chosen, situated at the start of the show, are linked to the dancers’ voices. The rhythmic complexity of the choreographic and vocal score, the dramatic quality of its gesture between movement and sound, call for an extreme attention to detail from its interpreters. Inspired by Samuel Beckett’s work, this show, the remodelling of which Maguy Marin has entrusted to Nadia Dumas, a former dancer with the Ballet de l’Opéra de Lyon, is performed without a setting but with costumes and make-up. Twelve female dancers participate in the show and also play the male roles. 

The choreographer
Of Spanish origin, born in Toulouse in 1951, Maguy Marin trained at Maurice Béjart’s Mudra school in Brussels. An interpreter with the Ballet du XXe siècle (Ballet of the 20th century) directed by Béjart, she founded a first company with Daniel Ambash, before winning an award at the Concours de Bagnolet in 1978 with Nieblas de Niño set to Spanish popular melodies. Based in the Maison des Arts de Créteil between 1980 and 1990, her company became a Centre chorégraphique national in 1985. Collaborating with the musician and composer Denis Mariotte since 1987, Maguy Marin carves out a highly personal language, delving into the gestures and sounds of the body, into dance and text, and live music, seeking out allies in the world of literature. Based since 1998 in Rillieux-la-Pape, in the suburbs of Lyon, she again became a free-lance company in 2011, when she decided to leave her position as director of the Centre chorégraphique. Since 1976 Maguy Marin has produced more than forty shows.