Ces poussières

This work for six dancers and an actor, which premiered in autumn 1993, draws its inspiration from the character of Raskolnikov – the tormented protagonist of the novel “Crime and Punishment” by Fyodor Dostoyevsky.

“Ces poussières”, a work for six dancers and an actor, which premiered in autumn 1993 at the Quartz in Brest, following a creative residence, went on to be performed at the Théâtre de la Ville in Paris, then in Limoges and La Rochelle. The work was contrived during a particularly busy period for the Studio DM because, at the same time, “Instance”, its foundational creation, was touring (triumphantly) Eastern Europe whilst the Catherine Diverrès – Bernardo Montet tandem were applying for the directorship of the National Choreographic Centre of Rennes and Brittany (CCNRB), which they were granted in January 1994. 

“Ces poussières”, which criss-crosses pictorial and textual references, draws its inspiration from the character of Raskolnikov – the tormented protagonist of the novel “Crime and Punishment” by Fyodor Dostoyevsky – coming face to face with scenes taken from the work of the painter Francisco Goya, from his “Los Caprichos”. There is also a scene inspired by the tapestry cartoon “The Puppet” (1792). “The world, disturbed, stifling, feverish, pushed to the paroxysm by Dostoyevsky, the permanence of doubles conjures up Goya’s world, a fantasy, carnavalesque universe where everything is about to become its opposite” comments the choreographer, “Both hurtle us back like a boomerang to the world of today, not as an image but as reality”. [1]

This new creation paves the way for work on space, which Catherine Diverrès would pursue hand-in-hand with other stage designers for many years to come. A highly-original scenic set-up imagined by Jean Haas provides the performers with a mobile decor comprising risers shifted as wished containing havens where solos, duos and other combinations criss-crossed, to music by J.-S. Bach, Lou Reed and Heinz Holliger. The lighting by Dominique Bruguière – who worked with Claude Régy, Jérôme Deschamps and Claude Chéreau, and for whom it was to be her first collaboration with Catherine Diverrès – provide the set with contrasts to the theatrical violence, which was customary in the choreographer’s work.

Moving away from the “investigation into tragedy”, undertaken in “Tauride” (1992) where the choreographer had, according to Irène Filiberti, “physically experienced the limit to give to meaning”, Catherine Diverrès situates “Ces poussières” on the edges of realism “between reason and delusion”, “in an equivocal space, without beginning, without end” [2]. For Irène Filiberti, the work embodies the choreographer’s “nihilistic voyages”, which would lead her to create “Corpus” and to meet the philosopher Jean-Luc Nancy.

From the point of view of the existence of literary material, “Ces poussières” was a climax in the choreographer’s work. It would frequently be quoted as such as the perfect counterpoint to her following creation, “L’ombre du ciel” (1994) – her inaugural work when she established herself in Rennes – in which Catherine Diverrès was eager to distance herself from her previous works and to “return to a purer form of dance, more akin to “Instance” [3]. 

Claire Delcroix

[1] C. Diverrès, Quartz programme, Brest, 30 September-1 October 1993.
[2] I. Filiberti, Catherine Diverrès mémoires passantes, Paris : Centre national de la danse ; L’Oeil d’or, 2010, p. 117.
[3] C. Diverrès quoted by D. Orvoine, “Entretien avec Catherine Diverrès”, CCN in Rennes, 28 April 1994.

REVIEW EXTRACTS

“As soon as the core, the moral dilemma, is extracted, then the figure of crime and its issue awakens. Raskolnikov, the central character, is multiplied. What madness, what fevers take hold of Bernardo Montet, capture Lluis Ayet, Thierry Baë, Fabrice Dasse and Alain Rigout? What dreams, punishment, exorcisms do Katja Fleig and Catherine Diverrès indulge in? This glorification of madness exposes itself to a truth into which the dancers venture between projections and holes depending on the mobile decor that configures the space: two object-boxes restrict the space and provoke eccentric movement where solos and duos are multiplied. Although, at the beginning, the spectator is carried along by the reassuring style of the story, although there is talk about “lice” and “this dust” (ces poussières, title of the work), suddenly we notice that only a spectre of the story remains, that the gestures are much more related to rites and the questionings that are firmly addressed: “What has happened to the time of the assassins?” are replaced by magnificent images, that are caustic, fantastic and grotesque – depending on whether they flicker from the Russian novel or Goya’s engravings, the writer and the painter were pursued for their closeness of mind”.

I. Filiberti, “Catherine Diverrès, mémoires passantes”, Paris : Centre national de la danse (Parcours d’artiste) ; L’Oeil d’or, 2010, p. 117-118

“Ces Poussières, 1993, rejuvenates reflection, and reflection about dance, on the real field of choreographic research. The ephemeral and painful grace that all human beings carry within. This dust (poussières, in French) that makes us up can strive for, can make a claim to that: a little beauty occasionally, at the clearest moment of the blackness, through awkwardness, and through inadvertence. An oversight, a contradiction, a parapraxis. Nothing. Beauty, be it unintentionally, awaits us. This is what Catherine Diverrès pursues in her dancers and it is the incomparable trust that she offers us, as spectators: to acknowledge this fleeting brilliance, this feeling that occasionally makes us look further, beyond; this strength that pulls us upwards”. 

Philippe Brzezanski, CCNRB website, 2002

Latest update: April 2014