Skip to main content
Back to search
  • Add to playlist

Cacti

Maison de la danse Director : Plasson, Fabien

Choreographer(s) : Ekman, Alexander (Sweden)

Present in collection(s): Maison de la danse , Saisons 2010 > 2019

Integral video available at Maison de la danse de Lyon

en fr

Cacti

Maison de la danse Director : Plasson, Fabien

Choreographer(s) : Ekman, Alexander (Sweden)

Present in collection(s): Maison de la danse , Saisons 2010 > 2019

Integral video available at Maison de la danse de Lyon

en fr

Cacti

World Premiere 25 February 2010, Lucent Dans theatre, Den Haag

In Cacti Ekman turns his keen eye upon the scene that birthed him: contemporary dance itself. A gleeful and knowing parody of the art form’s greater excesses, Cacti is an affectionate, pointed and often hilarious deconstruction of the affectations of dance.

Sixteen dancers stand, seemingly trapped, on oversized Scrabble tiles. While a string quartet plays, and spoken recordings give tongue-in-cheek narration of the action, the dancers run, fall, writhe and try to escape their invisible prisons; eventually – and this is the important bit – they each acquire a cactus. But what does it all mean?

Cacti was created in 2010 and is one of Ekmans most succesful pieces. It consists of 16 dancers creating rhythms together with 4 musicians live on stage.

Cacti was given as a gift from Queen beatrice of Holland to the royalties of Norway on a state visit in Oslo 2010. The piece was also nominated for the pristigeous Swan award for best new dance production in the Netherlands 2010.

Sydney Dance Company, Dresden Ballet, Dortmund Stadstheater and Boston Ballet will perform Cacti in 2013.

The Piece has been nominated for three awards. A swan award in Holland for best new dance production and for the critics circle award and an Olivier award in the UK.

Choreography Alexander Ekman
Assistant to the choreographer Urtzi Uranburu
Lighting Design Tom Visser
Costume Design Alexander Ekman
Text Spenser Theberge

Ekman, Alexander

Alexander Ekman is an international choreographer/director creating  pieces for theatres, opera houses and museums. He also directs films and  creates live performances/events in pop up locations around the world.  Ekman has created and collaborated with around 45 dance companies  worldwide including the Royal Swedish Ballet, Cullberg Ballet, Compañia  Nacional de Danza Goteborg Ballet, Iceland Dance Company, Bern Ballet,  Cedar Lake Contemporary Dance, Ballet de l’Opéra du Rhin, The Norwegian  National Ballet, Boston Ballet, Royal Ballet of Flanders, Sydney Dance  Company, The Royal Ballet of Denmark and Vienna Ballet. He has also  created for festivals the French Europa Danse and the Athens  International Dance Festival.
In 2005, at the International  Choreography Competition of Hannover, Ekman was awarded first prize by  the critics, and won second prize with Swingle Sisters (one of the  ballets from his Sisters trilogy). During 2011 Ekman also worked as a  teacher/choreographer at the prestigious Juilliard School in New York  City. Ekman’s 2010 work Cacti has become a worldwide hit and has been  performed by 15 dance companies including Sydney Dance Company. The work  was nominated for the Dutch Zwaan dance prize in 2010, the National  Dance Award (UK) in 2012, and also for the prestigious British Olivier  Award. In 2009 Ekman created the dance film 40 Meters Under for and with  Cullberg Ballet, which was broadcasted on national Swedish television.  That autumn he collaborated with the renowned Swedish choreographer Mats  Ek on video projections for Ek’s play Håll
Plats. Ekman also created an  installation for the Modern Museum in Stockholm with dancers of  Cullberg Ballet.
In 2012 he collaborated with Alicia Keys and  incorporated her into his work Tuplet. In 2014 Ekman created his own  version of Swan Lake, a new take on the most famous ballet of them all. A  Swan Lake received enormous attention worldwide and returned to the  Oslo Opera House in 2016. Ekman filled the stage with 6,000 litres of  water creating a real lake on stage. A Swan Lake is available on DVD and  the documentary Rare Birds by TM Rives shows the process of how it  became possible to create a lake inside an opera house. In 2015 Ekman  created his own version of A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Royal  Swedish Ballet. In September of that year he received the Swedish Medea  Award for “Inventor and renewer”. In 2016, he received the German  theatre award “Der Faust” for his ballet COW for the Semperoper Ballet.

Source: Opéra de Paris

Plasson, Fabien

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

NDT 2

In  1978, NDT founded a second division to feed the main company with young  talent. In the time span of three years, NDT 2 prepares twenty  classically trained dancers (varying in age between 17 and 23 years)  from around the world for NDT 1. Whereas the first company offer a  chance for the dancers to further develop their artistic personality,  the second company, NDT 2 offers a varied repertoire consisting of works  by established choreographers as well as upcoming stars, such as Jiří  Pokorný, Edward Clug, Imre van Opstal and Marne van Opstal.  

One of the objectives of NDT 2, is to acquaint the dancers with a  lexicon of dance languages. Working together with upcoming  choreographers, provides the dancers with the opportunity to learn to  react quickly to different dance languages, techniques and working  methods. 


Source : Nederlands Dans Theater


En savoir plus : www.ndt.nl

Cacti

Artistic direction / Conception : Alexander Ekman

Stage direction : Urtzi Aranburu

Additionnal music : Joseph Haydn : Sonate n°5, Sitio, extrait des Sept Dernières Paroles du Christ en Croix, Hob. XX, 1B, Ludwig Van Beethoven : deuxième mouvement du quatuor à cordes n°9 en Do Majeur, Op. 59, Franz Schubert : dernier mouvement du quatuor à cordes n° 14 en Ré mineur, D.810, La Jeune Fille et la Mort, Joseph Haydn : Allegro du quatuor à cordes op. 9 n°6 en La Majeur

Costumes : Alexander Ekman

Settings : Alexander Ekman

Our videos suggestions
01:46

Grand Finale

Shechter, Hofesh (United Kingdom)

  • Add to playlist
01:39

Mirages — Boreal souls - teaser

Ben Aïm, Christian & François (France)

  • Add to playlist
02:58

Un casse-noisette

Tchouda, Bouba Landrille (France)

  • Add to playlist
54:07

50 Box

  • Add to playlist
08:02

I think

  • Add to playlist
48:04

Peuplé, dépeuplé

Ben Aïm, Christian & François (France)

  • Add to playlist
02:13

Peuplé, dépeuplé

Ben Aïm, Christian & François (France)

  • Add to playlist
14:53

Counterpoint

  • Add to playlist
04:04

Cabaret Heels

  • Add to playlist
09:18

Accumulation

  • Add to playlist
06:08

Kwa Zulu Natal

  • Add to playlist
02:57

The seasons

Lock, Édouard (France)

  • Add to playlist
08:32

Signs and forms Perpetual Motion

  • Add to playlist
15:26

Look at me again!

  • Add to playlist
16:10

Boléro

  • Add to playlist
05:32

Sing Sing

Carlès, James (France)

  • Add to playlist
09:01

Canon 1

  • Add to playlist
02:35

ELEMENTEN I - Room

Van Acker, Cindy (France)

  • Add to playlist
15:34

Cinderella

Malandain, Thierry (France)

  • Add to playlist
06:18

La Belle et la Bête - Le Bal - Ballet T

Malandain, Thierry (France)

  • Add to playlist
Our themas suggestions

DANCE AND DIGITAL ARTS

Exposition virtuelle

fr/en/

Roots of Diversity in Contemporary Dance

Exposition virtuelle

fr/en/

(LA)HORDE: RESIST TOGETHER

Exposition virtuelle

fr/en/

CHRISTIAN & FRANÇOIS BEN AÏM – VITAL MOMENTUM

Exposition virtuelle

fr/en/

Les Rencontres chorégraphiques internationales de Seine-Saint-Denis

Exposition virtuelle

fr/en/

Vlovajobpru company

Exposition virtuelle

fr/en/

Amala Dianor: dance to let people see

Exposition virtuelle

fr/en/

Body and conflicts

A look on the bonds which appear to emerge between the dancing body and the world considered as a living organism.

Parcours

fr/en/

James Carlès

Exposition virtuelle

fr/en/

Do you mean Folklores?

Presentation of how choreographers are revisiting Folklore in contemporary creations.

Parcours

fr/en/

Maison de la danse

Exposition virtuelle

fr/en/

Dancing bodies

Focus on the variety of bodies offered by contemporary dance and how to show these bodies: from complete nudity to the body completely hidden or covered.

Parcours

fr/en/

EIVV 2022 Dancing with the camera

Exposition virtuelle

fr/en/

Why do I dance ?

Social dances, anti-establishment, protest dances, rhythms or identities, rituals or pleasures... There are a myriad of reasons for dancing and a myriad of points of view. A webdoc to discover, enhanced with extracts from performances and accounts from amateurs... all the right reasons for dancing!

Webdoc

fr/en/

Käfig, portrait of a company

Webdoc

fr/en/

Hip hop / Influences

This Course introduce to what seems to be Hip Hop’s roots.

Parcours

fr/en/

The national choreographic centres

Exposition virtuelle

fr/en/

The American origins of modern dance. [1960-1990] Postmodern dance and Black dance: artistic movements of their time

While the various forms of modern dance that emerged from the late 1920s onwards continued to develop, evolve and grow internationally, a new generation of dancers arose in a changing America. 

Parcours

fr/en/

Hip-hop: a grassroots movement

Parcours

fr/en/

Hip hop enters the French arts scenes

Parcours

fr/en/
By accessing the website, you acknowledge and accept the use of cookies to assist you in your browsing.
You can block these cookies by modifying the security parameters of your browser or by clicking onthis link.
I accept Learn more