Têtes à têtes

‘Tête à Têtes’ tells the entertaining story of a character with a large, round, faceless head, projected into a bizarre world in cartoon colours, where he finds an excellent playmate.

What if this was the beginning of dance? Being born, coming out of our mother’s stomach, growing up and experiencing the world.

Such is the dance-filled and visual adventure presented in ‘Tête à Têtes’. The entertaining story of a strange character with a large head, from his birth to his encounter with another character: is it his double, or someone else who looks like him? This large, round, faceless head lends the characters a strange yet entertaining appearance, like puppets or giant dolls.  

This large spherical bubble on the dancers’ heads forces them to finds means of expressing emotions and feelings not through their eyes and faces, but through their bodies, which results in a stylised movement resembling a cartoon. 

In addition, the characters are plunged into an environment of animated images, projected onto a white set, from the floor to the screen at the back of the stage, which gives the impression of a vast white page on which anything can be created or invented. 

The images of animations transform, punctuate and articulate the different scenes of which the piece is composed, in constant interaction with the characters. These scenes symbolise the different stages in the characters’ lives and their evolution in a visual and metaphorical way.

The result is an aesthetic resembling a cartoon – aesthetics and rules that are familiar to children – therefore allowing direct access to the themes presented in the show (the discovery of the self, of the body, of space, of emotions, of the other, etc.) in a fun, creative way.

Credits

Conception, chorégraphie et danse : Maria Clara Villa Lobos Durée : 45 mins Danse et collaboration : Barthélémy Manias-Valmont Création et régie lumières : Hajer IblisdirCréation sonore : Gaëtan Bulourde Musiques additionnelles: Pascal Ayerbe, Raymond Scott, MUM Régie vidéo : Pierre Delcourt Dessins et animation : Jérémy DepuydtAccessoires et costumes : Aurélie Deloche, Anne Ruellan Production : XL Production/ Villa Lobos asbl avec l’aide du Ministère de la Fédération WallonieBruxelles, Service de la Danse. Coproduction : Théâtre de Liège 

Réalisation vidéo : Fabien PlassonProduction : Biennale de la Danse – 2014