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Swim one
Following “Appel d’air” (In-draught) (1981), “Swim one” – a mildly humorous piece, distancing itself from “Simone” (1982) by just a few consonants and a few breaststrokes – staged dancers in leotards in a retro-glamorous comic book environment, accompanied by live music (bass and saxophone) that evoked an aquatic atmosphere.
No surprise then to find Régine Chopinot dealing with the marine element at the heart of this youthful piece, created for the Festival d’été de Seine Maritime in Rouen in July 1982. After “Reflux” and “L’Origine des poissons” (The origin of fish) dating from the time of the Compagnie du Grèbe (1979) but many years before her work immersed itself in the Southern Pacific with the Wetr (2011-2012), Chopinot’s destiny seems to be connected to the sea. Born in Fort-de-l’eau in Algeria, she tells of how, as a child there, she spent many hours sitting on her grandmother’s knee being shown the sea and the sun reflecting on it. A secret relationship would be born from these hours of observation, bringing her to the head of the CCN (National Choreography Centre) in La Rochelle, to the port of Toulon across the sea from the Algeria of her childhood, and to New Caledonia, in the middle of the Southern Pacific. Water is a structural element for Régine Chopinot: its strength and its perpetual dissatisfaction inspire her. “Water, it’s everything that you cannot name, or catch” – a little like her, she acknowledges – “it’s running as quickly as possible and not being satisfied with what you find (…) it’s picking holes in what you feel certain about.” [1]
No surprise either to find her eternal accomplice and playmate, Michèle Prélonge, her younger sister, here too, who benefited from the introduction to her forebears. Alongside them, Philippe Decouflé appeared for one of the first times, iconic companion during the first years of Régine Chopinot’s career, who he would work with until “Délices” (Delights).
If we are to believe the words of Jean Paul Gaultier, fashion’s enfant terrible at the beginning of the decade, it was “Swim one” which captivated him and launched the close cooperation of the two artists on many pieces right up to today: “At any moment, the function and the direction of things are susceptible to being reversed or transmuted. (…) Appearance does not establish identity. Its signs appear on the screen of the bodies like a shimmer on the surface, a precipitate of stereotypes which destroy each other by crashing into each other.” [2]
[1] A. Suquet, “Chopinot”, Le Mans: Cénomane, 2010, p. 34.
[2] R. Chopinot, in an interview filmed with A. Suquet, produced by: Centre national de la danse, 2012.
Updating: February 2013
