On était si tranquille [transmission 2016]

Extrait remonté par l’Atelier d’improvisation (Alès), responsable artistique Geneviève Choukroun, dans le cadre de Danse en amateur et répertoire (2015)

Choreography by Daniel Larrieu
An extract remodelled by the Atelier d’improvisation (Alès), artistic manager Geneviève Choukroun, as part of the “Danse en amateur et repertoire” programme (2015) (a programme created to assist and promote amateur dancing).

The group
Initiated by Marie-Claire Gelly-Aubaret, the Atelier d’improvisation, set up in 2008, consists of ten dancers. Geneviève Choukroun is their leader with the broad aim of developing contemporary dance in Alès and its surrounding area. Improvisation is at the heart of the practice of the participants, who boast a varied technical arsenal: Martha Graham, jazz, contemporary, classical, to name but a few. Regular meetings are programmed with artists such as Marc Vincent, Alain Joule, Françoise Leick, and Daniel Dobbels. The association has also forged ties with Le Cratère, scène nationale d’Alès, which places its dance studio at its disposal. 

The project
For the nine interpreters of the group, Daniel Larrieu’s show On était si tranquille, transmitted by Anne Laurent, was an obvious choice due to its spatial writing work and its way of enhancing simple and direct human presences. The wide breadth of sequences and musics appeared to be an easy and subtle approach to contemporary dance. The chosen extract, in the original line-up of fifteen dancers, was adapted without upsetting the short form structure (solo, duos, trios). Great attention was paid to the essence of Daniel Larrieu’s gestures, the group having read some of his writings, to his relationship with music, his quality in the intention of movement and his spatial treatment.  

The choreographer
A leading personality of 1980s French contemporary dance, Daniel Larrieu, first a dancer in Anne-Marie Reynaud’s company after studying horticulture, he created the company Astrakan in 1982. He quickly imposed a fluid and graphic set of gestures that causes space to vibrate between bodies by plugging them into the same energy socket. The director of the Centre chorégraphique national de Tours from 1994 to 2002, he has choreographed some thirty pieces including Waterproof (1986), an aquatic piece, On était si tranquille (1998), and Cenizas (2001). Now a free-lance choreographer, he divides his time between dance, theatre, installation and pedagogical projects. He was the administrator delegated to dance at the SACD.