Yes, Yes, Yes

Recorded at the CND le 29 January 2004

When a performer chooses her choreographer…

You decided to work with Christophe Haleb. How did you make this choice?

Isabelle Boutrois: Being able to choose one’s choreographer is already a very seductive idea. I really enjoy watching Chrisophe’s shows from the audience: he combines different forms of artistic expression with dance, such as fashion design, visual and plastic arts, live music, etc. I had wanted to work with him for a while and this materialized thanks to this project.

As a performer, what previous experience had you had of solos?

Isabelle Boutrois: I had had the opportunity to compose a solo, but I found the experience difficult: the solitude, no external view of my work… The chance to come back to the solo form with the eyes of Christophe Haleb was more interesting as I have been able to experience the composition process without it weighing so heavily. Solo work is an opportunity to put myself back into context as a performer, to continue exploring what dance means to me today.

When a choreographer responds to a performer…

Can you talk about the move from “choreographing a solo for oneself” to “creating a solo for someone else”? How did you go about this?

Christophe Haleb: The solo is a way of focusing one’s desire to dance. The performer has his own tools, his sensitivity, his intelligence, his imagination, his intimacy. He has his way of relating to others, to the world. It is a part of all this that is called into question. One of the points that we both have in common is that we have, at one time, been through the creation of a solo “in solitary isolation”.

Updating : March 2010