Necesito

The dancers have fun, grin and deploy their dance with the serenity of children who apply and discover the universe of possibilities.

“July ‘90: Daniel Girard, director of La Chartreuse (National Centre for Theatrical Writing) in Villeneuve-lez-Avignon, told me the story of Boabdil, the last Arab-Andalusian emir and ruler of Granada who, to avoid the pillaging and destruction of the city with the arrival of the Catholic monarchs, preferred to leave without joining battle. He suggested devising a celebration of this legendary episode of Granada’s history. At first I was taken with the idea of tackling a sort of commentary on the history of the Alhambra over a ground of Arab-Andalusian music, but I soon realised that I was increasingly put off by the notion of respect for the monuments of cultural or historical heritage. On the contrary, I understood that in the end it was the absence of details, of precise historical context and the comic-strip quality of the storyline that attracted me just as much as the simple ideology behind it. I didn’t feel the need to produce a respectful, even deferential, homage to the place and its legend, firstly because they don’t need it, but also because this would have been to betray my real desire and what I saw in the Court of Charles V in Granada, the procession of tourists, for example, and the derisory cruelty born out of the parallels between past and present. On the other hand, since I was offered this, I really wanted to be in collusion with these partners of a few evenings, these stories, this music.”
Dominique Bagouet, Juillet 1991


Source: les Carnets Bagouet