Inspired by real events, Black Lights is a show-series-manifesto that takes a look at the violence perpetrated against women on a daily basis. The show is based on a hard-hitting series entitled H24, which will be broadcast on ARTE in 2021, based on an original idea and direction by two film-makers, Valérie Urrea and Nathalie Masduraud.

The series features 24 short, daring films about 24 situations in a woman's daily life. It features 24 short, scripted stories set against different backdrops of everyday violence against women. 

Talk, dance. 

The body is my subject, movement is my object. I remain fascinated by the complexity of what a body in movement is capable of: by producing a plurality of meanings and images, it produces the imaginary, the political, meaning, it is a vector of immense possibility ranging from the poetic to the political. 

I have chosen to include 11 texts in this collection, simply because they are charged with a story of the body, 11 authors for a single stage community of dancers, singers and actors, 8 artists on stage who will carry these words as sisters, witnesses, partners in the game, but also 8 artists who will carry a common rhythm through the figures of chorus, group, support and dance. In the introduction to the collection, the two directors say: ‘Don't hesitate to take hold of these words, they're powerful, they're yours’. I take this outstretched hand at face value as a call for a show that could be invented and give these stories another life, directly linking what these texts do to the body. 

 A form of relay to say again, to bear witness, to continue to pursue this formidable punch that makes us understand these injustices. 

 - Mathilde Monnier -  

Mathilde Monnier holds a reference position in the French and international contemporary dance landscape. Her creations continuously defy expectations thanks to constant renewal. Her nomination as director of the Centre Chorégraphique de Montpellier Languedoc-Roussillon in 1994 has initiated a series of collaborations with people coming from different artistic domains. From artist Beverly Semmes to philosopher Jean-Luc Nancy from film director Claire Denis, Mathilde Monnier has always pushed the boundaries of a work she sees as an experience above all. Musical creation holds an important position with very varied collaborations within the fields of popular as well as scholarly music - jazz musician Louis Sclavis, composers David Moss and Heiner Goebbels, virtuoso platinist eriKm. More recently, she has used PJ Harvey's rock music but also the pink pop settings 2008 vallée, the show she co-created with singer Philippe Katerine. It came to a glorious end in the Main Courtyard at the 2008 Avignon festival. Fascinated by the concept of unison, she created the pastoral Tempo 76 show at the Montpellier Danse 07 festival on Gyôrgy Ligeti's music. In february 2008 she was commissionned by the Berlin Philarmonic Orchestra conducted by Simon Rattle to choreograph Heiner Goebbels opera, Surrogate Cities. More than 130 amateurs went on stage to take part to an opera dealing with the city and the power struggle within. The same year, she presented the burlesque duet Gustavia in which she appeared along with spanish performance artist La Ribot at the Montpellier Danse 08 festival. In 2009, she created Pavlova 3'23'', in reference to the classical ballet The Death of The Swan. In 2010, working in close collaboration with visual artist Dominique Figarella, Mathilde Monnier created the show Soapéra, and subsequently paid homage to Merce Cunningham by way of the show Un américain à paris. In 2011, together with choreographer Loïc Touzé and writer Tanguy Viel, Mathilde Monnier created Nos images, a work focusing on film. Together with Jean-François Duroure, she restaged Pudique acide / Extasis at the Festival Montpellier Danse 11, two duos that the choreographers created in 1984 and 1985.

Source : Mathilde Monnier 

En savoir plus : www.mathildemonnier.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