Errance - Don Quichotte, solo provisoire

Recorded at the CND 28 May 2009

[Don Quixote, provisional solo] 

“Don Quixote” is considered to be the first modern novel, as it breaks with the narrative tradition of its time. It is also one of humanity’s best known works, undoubtedly one of the most popular, which exists since 1605 and continues to take root in the spirit and the popular imagination. Even without having read the work, everyone knows the creature of Cervantès’ imagination, who has become a sort of universal human archetype.

Why does an artist choreographer choose to work on the figure of Don Quixote?

Here is Dominique Boivin’s response:

“The idea of embodying Don Quixote had been taking shape in my head for several years. I have the impression that it is the right moment for me to conjure up, inhabit, confront this character anchored in our collective memory. I think of “Don Quixote” as an endless wandering through a maze similar to the labyrinth (symbol of the journey of initiation towards the self). Both hero and victim of his obsessions, this sad-faced knight treads a “way of the cross” which is actually more like an ice floe than a lush garden.

Transcribing this epic as a solo might seem paradoxical in view of the abundance of characters and situations described in the text. I chose this biased view to reinforce the solitude of Don Quixote in the face of worlds that he alone creates and sees. It is possible that the character of Sancho might be fictional too, just the other side of the same mind, Don Quixote’s, the “wise” part of himself which he only calls upon episodically in order to live his dreams fully.

As an interpreter, dancer, performer, I wish to embody Don Quixote like a bag of bones, live his thinness in an organic way, not preoccupy myself with the narration or anecdotes, but grasp the destiny of this touching, old-fashioned and human “hero” fully, with both hands.”

Updating: November 2010