Assaï (« Haro 1 ») [transmission 2014]

Extrait chorégraphique remonté par le groupe association Vaines Caves (Châteauroux), responsable artistique Virginie Andreu avec la participation de Teresa Salerno, dans le cadre de Danse en amateur et répertoire (2013)

Choreography by Dominique Bagouet
A choreographic extract remodelled by the association Vaines Caves (Châteauroux), artistic manager Virginie Andreu with the participation of Teresa Salerno, as part of the “Danse en amateur et repertoire” programme (2013) (a programme created to assist and promote amateur dancing). 

The group

The association Vaines Caves was created on the initiative of Virginie Andreu as a means of setting up contemporary dance projects in Berry. She gathered around her advanced-level amateur dancers hailing from several dance schools in Châteauroux and looking for choreographic research and creative experiences. This group of dancers combines a variety of profiles: school-age teens mix with adult dancers, all with the same curiosity for contemporary dance that extends beyond the boundaries of dance such as practiced in the city’s dance schools.  

The project

In autumn 2012, Équinoxe, scène nationale de Châteauroux, organised a series of events: Constellation Bagouet, on the occasion of the twentieth anniversary of the death of Dominique Bagouet. A special relationship then grew up between the association Vaines Caves and Christian Bourigault, a dancer who participated in the creation of Assaï, a particularly emblematic piece from Dominique Bagouet’s choreographic writing. The chosen extract, Haro 1, is made up of three trios: les créatures, les jeunes filles and les docteurs. Catherine Legrand transmitted les créatures, Dominique Noël les jeunes filles and Michèle Rust les docteurs, all three being former dancers of this piece. Christian Bourigault supervised all the rehearsals and the setting up of the project. 

The choreographer

Dominique Bagouet (1951-1992), an emblematic choreographer of French contemporary dance, trained at Rosella Hightower’s school, before completing his apprenticeship with Maurice Béjart in Brussels. In 1980, he became the director of one of the first Centres chorégraphiques nationaux, that of Montpellier. Rooted in classical dance, his detailed writing, subtly burlesque at times, combines gestural precision, quirky elegance and intimate musicality. He has collaborated with a large number of artists such as the composer Pascal Dusapin and the visual artist Christian Boltanski, to name but a few. Since his death in 1992, the association Les Carnets Bagouet, founded by his dancers, has kept and transmitted his works both in France and overseas.