Trois générations [transmission 2018]

An extract remodelled by Les ateliers chorégraphiques du château Coquelle (Dunkerque, Hauts-de-France), artistic manager Christine Vandenbussche, as part of the “Danse en amateur et répertoire” programme (2017/2018) (a programme created to assist and promote amateur dancing).

Transmission by Darrell Davis.

Presented on 26 May 2018, Les 2 Scènes, Théâtre Ledoux, Besançon.

The piece when it was created

Firstly produced 11 March 2004 at La Rampe, Scène conventionnée danse et musiques in Échirolles 

Choreography: Jean-Claude Gallotta

Piece for 24 performers 

Groupe Grenade A: Lola Cougard, Clémence Touret, Maëlle Colleu-Hepke, Kheidija Zandad, Thomas Birzan, Rafaël Sauzet, Lucien Boilley, Barnabé Faliu

Groupe Grenade B: Anaëlle Legros, Laura Cortes, Émilie Girard, Farida Gourari, Rasmeiy Ouk, Robin Maurice, Pierre Boileau, Sofiane Merabet

Groupe Émile Dubois: Ximena Figueroa, Benjamin Houal, Ludovic Galvan, Yannick Hugron, Hee-Jin Kim, Kae Kurachi, Massa Sugiyama, Thierry Verger 

Groupe Mézall : Françoise Bal-Goetz, Mirjam Berns, Darrell Davis, Christophe Delachaux, Martin Kravitz, Anne-Marie Moenne-Loccoz, Colette Priou, Yo Xakabe

Music: Strigall

Original duration: 1h30

The group

Les ateliers chorégraphiques du château Coquelle (Dunkerque, Hauts-de-France)

The group is made up of amateur dancers who attend workshops supervised by the two teachers, Christine Vandenbussche and Nathalie Brasme, in classical, modern jazz and contemporary dance. They take part in choreographic meetings and in regional and national competitions. The aims of the choreographic workshops are technique, well-being and preparation for the stage. For this project, the group consists of 26 dancers from three different generations: children, teenagers and adults. 

The project 

Les ateliers chorégraphiques chose Jean-Claude Gallotta’s Trois générations for its intergenerational form. Children, teenagers and adults interact and, in some cases, even dance with their own families, thus strengthening the parent-child relationship. The château Coquelle has always been attentive to the diversity of bodies and to the richness that the mixing of these bodies creates, defending the idea that the body should be able to express itself freely without being confined in a merciless matrix: it is important to go beyond the body’s limits without, however, constantly struggling to correspond to an ideal defined by the fashion industries, or endangering it. The body can be supple, it can be firm, it can be soft. It has the right to be old and tired. The body is malleable but also aggressive. In this way, Trois générations places the body at the forefront through a choreography taken up by three groups of dancers with the suppleness, strength and gestures specific to each of these groups, according to their practice, experience and age.