Sous le signe de la Danse du temps [transmission 2022]

An extract remodelled by the group Association Transverses, as part of the “Danse en amateur et repertoire” programme 2020/2022 (a programme created to assist and promote amateur dancing). Transmission by Régine Chopinot, Virginie Garcia, John Bateman

Presented on 18 June 2022, Maison de la danse in Lyon.

The piece when it was created 

La Danse du temps 

Firstly produced 8 & 9 November 1999 at La Coursive, Scène nationale de La Rochelle

Choreography: Régine Chopinot 

Piece for thirteen performers: John Bateman, Géraldine Blanchard, Daniel Scott Bodiford, Régine Chopinot, Clara Cornil, Philippe Ducou, Virginie Garcia, Alexandre Isely, Franck Journo, Anne Moulin, Claire Servant, Marie Tempère, Duke Wilburn

With the associated artists Françoise Dupuy, Dominique Dupuy, Sophie Lessard 

Music: Tôn-Thât Tiêt

Original duration: 1h10

The group

Association Transverses is a group of around 16 dancers of various ages, with a core troupe of 5 female dancers and 2 male dancers. Most of the group have known each other and have been dancing together for around fifteen years. Aged from 23 to 77, the dancers have participated in a number of amateur projects, in particular with the Nouvelle-Aquitaine national choreography centre (CDCN), La Manufacture. The association is based in the city of Bordeaux, but its dancers also come together to perform in open air landscapes. With the supervision of Pascale Etcheto, choreographers and trainers are regularly invited to teach classes and improvise with the group. Participating in the Amateur Dance and Repertoire programme is a chance to take their work a step further and hone their practice by exploring a specific artistic approach, in this case, that of Régine Chopinot. 

The project

Sous le signe de la Danse du temps is a choreographic adaptation of La Danse du temps created in 1999. The dancers were keen to explore the complex conceptions of time and space that emerge from the original work. Furthermore, they were intrigued by the way the piece brings together the sculptural work of Goldsworthy and the music of Tôn-Thât Tiêt, with Chopinot’s delicate sensibility. Régine Chopinot’s support of migrant populations also resonates with the dancers, who understand his need to “choreograph free presences”. Likewise central to the project are the notions of transmission and community, evoked by running and walking movements in the piece. Choreographer Régine Chopinot, and dancers from the original creation, Virginie Garcia and John Bateman, led the recreation of this piece.