May B [transmission 2024]

A choreographic extract remodelled by the group L’Ar(t)icoche, coordinator Guiomar Campos, as part of the “Danse en amateur et repertoire” programme 2023/2024 (a programme created to assist and promote amateur dancing).

Transmission by Alice Boivin, performer and notator, Isabelle Missal, performer 

Presented on 15 June 2024, Le Manège de Reims.

The piece when it was created

May B

Firstly produced 4 november 1981 at the théâtre municipal in Angers as part of l’Automne chorégraphique d’Angers and 8 January 1982 at the Maison des arts in Créteil

Choreography: Maguy Marin

Work for ten performers: Daniel Ambash, Luna Bloomfield, Christiane Glik, Mireille Campioni, Pierre Fabris, Toméo Verges, Karin Vyncke, Mathias Pons, Mychel Lecoq, Maguy Marin 

Music: Air de Gilles de Binche 

Original duration: 1h30 

The group

L’Ar(t)icoche (Porspoder, Bretagne)

Ar(t)icoche is a cultural organisation created in 2006 by Christine Paillard and Anne Laure Le Niliot, inhabitants of Porspoder in the Finistère region of Brittany. Ar(t)icoche brings contemporary dance out of traditional spaces, offering a diversity of high-quality, inclusive, cultural initiatives to make dance more accessible. The group is made up of people from of various ages and professional backgrounds. They meet for class once a week with Guiomar Campos or a guest teacher, and also come together for the end-of-year performance and a workshop in early July.  

The project

The group developed a great admiration for Maguy Marin’s masterwork, May B. This piece, created in 1981 and inspired by the work of Samuel Beckett, marked a turning point in the choreographer’s career, launching her from partial obscurity into the ranks of popular choreographers. With over a thousand performances, the piece has been seen by thousands of viewers and danced by many different performers. The group learnt the work both via an extract of the choreographic score, with the help of dance notator Alice Boivin, and through the lived experience of one of its performers, Isabelle Missal. Having been invited to join the company Maguy Marin in 1991 as a teacher, then working regularly as a dancer-creator at the RamDam art centre, Missal was able to pass on the choreography in a more intimate, embodied way. The issue of physical transformation was also an important part of this collaboration.