Salida [transmission 2015]

Extrait de la pièce de J.-A. Bigot et A. Le Batard remontée par le groupe Diagonale(s) (Bois-Guillaume), coordinateur(s) artistiques Marie-Brigitte Pelletier, Marie-Aude Babault, dans le cadre de “Danse en amateur et répertoire” (2014)

Choreography by Jean-Antoine Bigot and Anne Le Batard
A choreographic extract remodelled by the group Diagonale(s) (Bois-Guillaume), artistic coordinator(s) Marie-Brigitte Pelletier, Marie-Aude Babault, as part of the “Danse en amateur et repertoire” programme (2014) (a programme created to assist and promote amateur dancing).

The group
Set up some ten years ago in the Rouen urban area, Diagonale(s)’s main members are physical and sports education teachers having practiced dance and wishing to participate in workshops, in addition to classes. A number of choreographers based in the region have agreed to collaborate, as well as the company Ex Nihilo that is a frequent guest. This group usually prefers dancing in outdoor spaces. In a rather paradoxical manner, although it has contacted a company that is a reference in this field, the group chose the work Salida, adaptable to stage frontality, according to a mechanism that is most unusual for these amateurs. 

The project
A rare occurrence, Ex Nihilo did not transmit an extract from Salida but rather completely reshaped the piece to reproduce its overall progression. The move from the original number of six interpreters to twelve does not present any real problems due to its modular writing based on duos. However, the equal distribution between men and women has been lost. Also noteworthy is the mature age of some interpreters, in a work where repoussés, jetés, lâchers, reprises, saisies are voluntarily vigorous. The dramatic quality of couple relationships, resolutely colouring gestural quality, is one of the fine challenges of this transmission. The choreographers dedicated themselves to this aspect, alongside Anne Reymann, enjoying the opportunity to revisit their own writing. 

The choreographers
Based in Marseille for the last two decades, the company Ex Nihilo is a reference in outdoor choreography. Co-directed by Anne Le Batard and Jean-Antoine Bigot, it conceives movement as the taking up of space in the midst of urban movement. Its writing is deliberately highly structured, but open to surprise and responsive to the unexpected. Ex Nihilo had already transmitted one of its pieces, Trajets de vie, trajets de ville, on the occasion of the “Danse en amateur et repertoire” 2014 meeting. Salida, revived this year, dates back to 2001. Its authors have detected in it founding elements of their group writing, based on duos taken in a perpetuum of choreographic globality where circulations demand a sustained mutual attentiveness.