Voyage organisé

This piece combines the themes of the tour and the wedding. It forms a kind of family picture typical characters.

Choreography: Dominique Bagouet

“Voyage organise” tells the story of a wedding party, and introduces all the conventional characters of such a situation…

However, the course of the narration is interrupted by abstract choreographical passages during which the dancers drop their situation-related costumes. “

Sources: Isabelle Ginot, « Dominique Bagouet, un labyrinthe dansé », Dance National Centre Edition – 1999

A few characters, a romantic-to-the-hilt married couple, a family, some children, comical and nostalgic situations, a very descriptive soundtrack alternating between Maurice Jaubert’s music and a sea sound, “Voyage organise” refers to the wedding parties he used to attend during his childhood, to these huge family shindigs during which, as a tiny kid, he would dance with the bride’s bouquet… It is of course a sort of parody of a wedding, with many allusions and full of tenderness.

Sources: Chantal Aubry, “Bagouet”, Bernard Coutaz edition, 1989

The constantly very musical choreography combines gestures and dance. There is rhythm in the corporal expression but the movements are broken, crushed, and disarticulated, in the use of the groups and soloists like marionettes. All the jerky steps make us smile. On the contrary, as soon as emotion bursts out, we are plunged into a pitching sea world where everything sways. The large backcloth representing clouds and the two great sloping platforms on each side of the stage reproduce, with the dancers’ movements, the illusion of the sea:  the flood tide, the backwash. (…)

To present this ‘conducted tour’, twelve characters, four of whom are musicians, are on stage. Only eight dancers! And yet, it is as if we were seeing throughout the show a cast of thousands appearing suddenly from anywhere. This is another reason for paying tribute once more to the performers who multiply their personality to fully participate in the choreography. None of them betray the remarkable work of Dominique Bagouet.

Sources: Charles A., « Pour la danse » – November 1977

Credits

Choreography: Dominique Bagouet

Duration: 10′

Dancers: Frédéric Bentkowski, Philippe Cohen, Catherine Diverrès, Sylvie Giron, Bernard Glandier, Yveline Lesueur, Bernardo Montet, Renate Pook, Monet Robier.

Music: Maurice Jaubert

Scenery: Christine Le Moigne

Stage lighting: Rémi Nicolas

Costumes: Dominique Bagouet and Christine Le Moigne

Direction : Charles Picq

Production : Les Carnets Bagouet

Date of creation: Octobre 6th 1977, Maison des Arts et de la Culture at Créteil

Performance recorded in Decembre 6th décembre 1980, Théâtre municipal de Montpellier

Last update: December 2012