For the Lyon 2023 Dance Biennial, Phia Ménard, associate artist of the Biennial and the Maison de la danse, is creating the show "ART.13".

A few months before the show's premiere, the choreographer and her team welcomed filmmaker Fabien Plasson to the workshops of the Non Nova company in Nantes. 

In this report, we discover Phia Ménard's creative process, her artistic approach and her ongoing dialogue and close collaboration with her team.

An immersion in the creation of ART.13 that reflects the way in which Phia Ménard skilfully blends dance, work with visual and sound materials, and links with nature...

ART.13 is a stage act about a world of arrogance that is collapsing but refuses to be silenced. The starting point is a bucolic scene in a domesticated garden, where, on a perfectly mown lawn, a statue of a man is enthroned, raised by a plinth that distances it from the ground. A symbol of Culture, while Nature invites itself into the animal that extracts itself from a hole with an axe. Should the statue be knocked off its pedestal or vice versa? Is this an attempt at revolution, or the dawn of a new mode of action? Destroy or Deconstruct could be the subtitle. Perhaps we're running out of other ways to transform ourselves.

Source: Cie Non Nova

Phia Ménard is an author, performer, scenographer, director and juggler. It was in 1991 that she began to train to the Arts and especially to the juggling and the actor’s movement. She became a student with Jérôme Thomas, learning the techniques of juggling and composition. She integrates the company on the creation « Hic Hoc ». With this team she traveled to several continents, learning to be an interpreter, improviser and creator of several shows of the company until 2003: « Le socle » (The base) choreography by Cécile Bornes, « Le banquet » (The banquet), "Hioc", « 4 », « qu'on en finisse une bonne fois pour toutes… » (Let's finish it once and for all…).

Meanwhile, she meets Hervé Diasnas and Valérie Lamielle, follows the teachings of her dance practice and interprets two pieces: "The tattooed page" and "Badaboum".

She founded the Non Nova Company in 1998 and began to write her own plays. It was with the solo, «Ascenseur, fantasmagorie pour élever les gens et les fardeaux », created in 2001, that she will be recognized as an author and supported for her singular and personal approach. His company became associate artist for three seasons at the National Scene Le Carré at Château Gontier (2003/2006). She develops with the teams of Non Nova and the Scène Nationale, a work on the visibility of the artist's approach and various experiments. The « Zapptime, the awakened dream of a zapper », will take place during this period, the "Jongleur pas confondre" show with Jean-Michel Guy (sociologist), "Fresque et sketches 2nd round", and off-piste events: « Est-il vraiment sérieux de jongler ? » (Is it really serious to juggle?), « Ursulines Dance Floor », « Ursulines Mushroom Power ». In 2005, she was invited by Jean Blaise to the Lieu Unique, Scène Nationale de Nantes for « Zapptime # remix ». Follow « Touch It » and « Doggy Bag ». From 2008, it develops the concept of I.C.E. (Complementary Tangibility of Elements) with the creation of "P.P.P. "At the Subsistances de Lyon and « L’après-midi d’un foehn Version 1 » at the Museum of Natural History in Nantes. She collaborates and performs the "Iceman" performance with Collectif La Valise for the film « Coyote pizza ». In response to the invitation of the SACD and the Festival d'Avignon 2010, she wrote « Black Monodie » with the sound poet Anne James Chaton. In 2011, she creates the wind parts, « L’après-midi d’un foehn » and « VORTEX ».

Source: Biennale de la danse de Lyon

En savoir plus

cienonnova.com

Born in 1977, Fabien Plasson is a video director specialized in the field of performing arts (dance , music, etc).

During his studies at the Ecole Nationale des Beaux-Arts de Lyon (joined in 1995) Fabien discovered video art. He was trained by various video artists (Joel Bartoloméo Pascal Nottoli , Eric Duyckaerts , etc).
He first experimented with the creation of installations and cinematic objects.

From 2001 to 2011, he was in charge of Ginger & Fred video Bar’s programming at La Maison de la Danse in Lyon. He discovered the choreographic field and the importance of this medium in the dissemination, mediation and pedagogical approach to dance alongside Charles Picq, who was a brilliant video director and the director of the video department at that time.

Today, Fabien Plasson is the video director at La Maison de la Danse and in charge of the video section of Numeridanse.tv, an online international  video library, and continues his creative activities, making videos of concerts, performances and also creating video sets for live performances.

Sources: Maison de la Danse ; Fabien Plasson website

More information: fabione.fr

Founded in 1998 by Phia Ménard with the founding precept that we don't invent anything, we just see it differently: Non nova, sed nove.

The company has been based in Nantes since it was founded. Its head office is a creative space that includes a rehearsal studio, construction workshop, costume workshop, set storage and offices. The aim of this space is to enable the Company to carry out preparatory research and create its work.

The Company's multidisciplinary projects bring together artists, technicians and thinkers from a wide range of backgrounds and experience. It is not a collective but a professional team led by Phia Ménard and Claire Massonnet.

Source: Cie Non Nova