[Sous le signe de] St Georges [transmission 2015]

Extrait de la pièce de Régine Chopinot remontée par le groupe ARC (Strasbourg), répétition et coordination artistique Sylvain Boruel, Michèle Rust, dans le cadre de “Danse en amateur et répertoire” (2014)

Choreography by Régine Chopinot
A choreographic extract remodelled by the group ARC (Strasbourg), coach and artistic coordinator Sylvain Boruel, Michèle Rust, as part of the “Danse en amateur et repertoire” programme (2014) (a programme created to assist and promote amateur dancing).

The group
Is not a Conservatoire par excellence the place of amateur practice? Set up three years ago, the choreographic research workshop of the Conservatoire à rayonnement communal de Strasbourg (one thousand and two hundred dance students) is the spearhead of a reflection around this question. Its ten members (aged seventeen to fifty-two), with very varying levels and intensities of practice, have developed their work, particularly in the light of the acquisitions of the Carnets Bagouet, on the question of the transmission of contemporary writings. Today, the choice of Régine Chopinot’s St Georges, a piece inspired by the observation of Roman sculpture, enters into a citizen resonance with the celebrations of the one thousand year anniversary of Strasbourg cathedral. 

The project
As a rule little concerned by the sustainment of her own repertoire, Régine Chopinot became very actively committed to the invention of a variation based on St Georges. She was extremely demanding of this work, sharing in it her practice of yoga, which she initiated with this piece in 1991. The original process of observation of drawings describing sculptures from the Roman period was renewed. The choreographic singularity lies in the quest of the sources of movement from frozen graphic shapes. It also lies in the attention to detail, the drawing of faces, strong frontality, interlocking of bodies, and embedding of patterns in tightly-packed exhibition frames (mandorlas, friezes, pediments).

The choreographer
The figurehead of the Nouvelle Danse Française (New French Dance), Régine Chopinot directed the CCN de La Rochelle – Ballet Atlantique from 1986 to 2007. Distantly inspired by Merce Cunningham, she produced large-format pieces, bursting with originality, in resonance with the dynamic, optimistic and chromatic mood of the 1980s – in particular through a long-standing collaboration with the fashion designer Jean-Paul Gaultier. In 1991, her work St Georges took on a more restrained tone, marking the start of the introduction of yoga in the everyday life of her dancers. For the last dozen years, Régine Chopinot has chosen more austere and demanding options, with political resonances. To date she has never concerned herself with the sustainment of her own repertoire.