Standards [transmission 2018]

An extract remodelled by the Compagnie K-Libre (Merville, Occitanie), artistic manager Marie Dessaux, as part of the “Danse en amateur et répertoire” programme (2017/2018) (a programme created to assist and promote amateur dancing).

Transmission by Pierre Rigal, Mélanie Chartreux, Camille Regneault and Julien Saint-Maximin.

Presented on 26 May 2018, Les 2 Scènes, Théâtre Ledoux, Besançon.

The piece chen it was created

Firstly produced 2-4 February 2012 at the Théâtre de Suresnes Jean Vilar

Choreography: Pierre Rigal, Mélanie Chartreux

Piece for 9 performers:  Lydie Alberto, Abdoulaye Barry, Mathieu Hernandez, Giovanni Léocadie, Sandrine Lescourant, Yoann Nirennold, Camille Regneault, Julien Saint-Maximin, Marie-Kaae Schmidt

Music: Nihil Bordures

Original duration: 1h10

The group

Compagnie K-libre (Merville, Occitanie)

The amateur company K-libre was born in 2013 out of the desire of ten young boys to unite around their shared passion for dance. But why create an all-male group? In order to explore, without fear or prejudice, a multitude of danced practices. Coming from rural backgrounds, in which male dancing is not really promoted or encouraged, this project allowed them to come together and to feel stronger and serener in their practice. This close-knit group also develops projects other than dance. They have produced Sois un homme, a short film about the difficulty of being a boy dancer today. 

The project 

How could they make their dance a medium, a bearer of messages on society issues? In 2015, this group of young boys, committed to a strong citizen dynamic, questioned the influence of reality shows in a work that they created with the help of their choreographer, Marie Dessaux. In 2016, they questioned the difficulty of being a boy dancer. The issues raised by Pierre Rigal in Standards resonated with their concerns as young citizens. French society was in the throes of a social upheaval in which the values of the Republic (Liberty, Equality, Fraternity) seemed to have become “superficial” words for these young dancers, who did not measure (or only a little) their core meaning and did not feel their impact in their lives. By choosing this work, they immersed themselves in turn in these questionings around national identity, living together, and appropriation of the flag, by questioning more generally the place that political space assumes in their dance.