Ex/Stase Narcisses-1

EX/STASE NARCISSES-1 / first performed 2010

Conception Coraline LamaisonDance performance Annabelle Chambon

Ecstasy is a state in which the individual no longer has any perception of the self, completely absorbed in an otherness. The manifest violence in the way Western society functions reveals more fault-lines in the system day by day. We know that some enjoy an unlimited surplus while others do not even have their basic needs met. We are fed ever-more alarmist news, which still mainly turns around human behaviour. And what do our social habits, behaviour and their origins have to do with it? In the 1950s, a change began, influenced by new doctrines such as ego or self psychology, which led to a separation from others and a breakdown in social cohesion. The “middle class society” gradually installed the Ego and Well-being at the centre of its preoccupations, thus becoming increasingly individualistic and consumerist. Today we find ourselves grappling with this ideology, reliant on its way of representing, both to itself and to us, relationships between mankind and the world, sucked in by the normalised ways it engenders. In this context, we search for magic solutions to the anxieties we feel: otherness, gender difference, aging and death are experienced as narcissism’s scandalous failures. We struggle to maintain our psychological balance, that is to say, homeostasis: we are caught between displeasure and pleasure, pain and well-being, stasis and ecstasy. Stasis is a kind of suspension of time. A halt. With “Narcisses-1 Ex/Stase”, I wanted on the one hand to explore the different meanings the myth of Narcissus has for today, in the many forms it takes, to interpret the signs of narcissism through its contemporary codes and symbols, and to work on the concepts which overstep the lines of convention and which are the motives of the myth. On the other hand, I wanted to reveal the compulsive origin of narcissistic behaviour – the “natural” history of narcissism – and the dark areas, rooted in our bodies, our gestures, which guide our actions. All the action played out on the world’s stage comes through the body. This episode is first and foremost choreographic, a “dance” of the archetypal ideal woman, as we see her, as she shows herself. It takes the form of an interpretation of the narcissistic fantasies and impulses which lead to deformation of the body, to extreme practices, to the point of physical transformation. Pierre Jodlowski’s musical composition lies at the heart of Fred Cassan’s lengthy process using video animation.

Coraline Lamaison

Source: Maison de la Danse programming

Credits

Conception Coraline Lamaison chorégraphie Coraline Lamaison, Annabelle Chambon interprète Annabelle Chambon création musicale Pierre Jodlowski création vidéo Fred Cassan décor Jérôme souillot lumières Harry Cole régie sébastien BétousVideo direction : Charles PicqProduction : Maison de la Danse

Updating : April 2011