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 occupies a place of reference in the landscape of  French and international contemporary dance. From piece to piece, she  thwarts expectations by presenting work in constant renewal.

Her  appointment as head of the Montpellier Languedoc-Roussillon  Choreographic Center in 1994 marked the beginning of a series of  collaborations with personalities from various artistic fields (Jean-Luc  Nancy, Katerine, Christine Angot, La Ribot, Heiner Goebbels.. .).

She  created more than 50 choreographic pieces presented on major  international stages like the Avignon Festival, the Théâtre de la Ville  in Paris, passing through New York, Vienna, Berlin, London and receiving  several prizes for her work (Ministry of Culture prize, SACD Grand  Prize).

After directing the CND National Dance Center in Paris,  Mathilde Monnier resumed her creative work in 2019 with several pieces  like Please Please Please (2019) which she created in collaboration with  La Ribot & Tiago Rodiguez, Records (2021) and her latest, Black  Lights (2023).

Since 2020, Mathilde Monnier and her company have residing at the Halle Tropisme in Montpellier.

Source and more information: https://www.mathildemonnier.com/en/

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