[Don Quixote, provisional solo] 

“Don Quixote” is considered to be the first modern novel, as it breaks with the narrative tradition of its time. It is also one of humanity's best known works, undoubtedly one of the most popular, which exists since 1605 and continues to take root in the spirit and the popular imagination. Even without having read the work, everyone knows the creature of Cervantès' imagination, who has become a sort of universal human archetype.

Why does an artist choreographer choose to work on the figure of Don Quixote?

Here is Dominique Boivin's response:

“The idea of embodying Don Quixote had been taking shape in my head for several years. I have the impression that it is the right moment for me to conjure up, inhabit, confront this character anchored in our collective memory. I think of “Don Quixote” as an endless wandering through a maze similar to the labyrinth (symbol of the journey of initiation towards the self). Both hero and victim of his obsessions, this sad-faced knight treads a “way of the cross” which is actually more like an ice floe than a lush garden.

Transcribing this epic as a solo might seem paradoxical in view of the abundance of characters and situations described in the text. I chose this biased view to reinforce the solitude of Don Quixote in the face of worlds that he alone creates and sees. It is possible that the character of Sancho might be fictional too, just the other side of the same mind, Don Quixote's, the “wise” part of himself which he only calls upon episodically in order to live his dreams fully.

As an interpreter, dancer, performer, I wish to embody Don Quixote like a bag of bones, live his thinness in an organic way, not preoccupy myself with the narration or anecdotes, but grasp the destiny of this touching, old-fashioned and human “hero” fully, with both hands."

Updating: November 2010

Dominique Boivin followed a classical training before turning to contemporary dance. Carolyn Carlson and the dancers of the GRCOP (Choreographic Research Group of the Paris Opera) introduced him to the teaching of Alwin Nikolais. His first piece, “Quelle fut ta soif?”, won the Humour Prize at the Bagnolet Contest in 1978. In the summer of 1979 he created the solo “L'homme cheval” for the Avignon Festival, which consists of minute, mathematically-orchestrated gestures. In 1979 he obtained a bursary to study in New York for a year, where he trained with Merce Cunningham, Douglas Dunn, Lucinda Childs and Meg Harper.

When he was invited to join the company of the CNDC (National Centre for Contemporary Dance), Angers, directed at the time by Alwin Nikolais, he met many of the dancers with whom he went on to form the Beau Geste company in 1981.

Dominique Boivin danced with a number of companies (Grand Magasin / P. Murtin, F. Hiffler, DCA/P. Decouflé, Astrakan/ D. Larrieu) in between choreographing his own works: "Belles de Nuit“ in 1991, “Carmen” in 1992, “La Belle Etoile” in 1993, “Cabaret Pataphysique” (Pataphysical Cabaret) in 1993. His solo “La danse, une histoire à ma façon...“ (Dance – a history told my way) from 1994, revived in 2000, is a brilliant presentation of the culture of subtle gesture which underpins his choreography. He has choreographed for the operas “Orphée aux Enfers” in Geneva (1997) and "Les Amours de Bastien et Bastienne” in Rouen and Paris (2002), as well as a reworking of the ballet “The Nutcracker” for the Ballet de l'Opéra de Lyon (2001). At the same time, he continued composing for the Beau Geste company: "Petites histoires au-dessus du ciel” in 1996, “Conte sur Moi” in 2000 and “Miniatures de l'Émoi” in 2003.

He collaborated with La Petite Fabrique to choreograph the duet “The Lion and The Rat” as part of the “Les Fables à La Fontaine” project in 2002 and with the Non de Nom/Pascale Houbin company, with whom he composed “Bonté Divine” in 2003 and "Ni d'Ève, ni d'Adam” in 2007.

He ventured into street theatre with the composition of “Transports Exceptionnels” in 2005, a duet for a dancer and a mechanical digger, then, in the same year, he explored the relationship between dance and theatre in "À quoi tu penses?”, using monologues by the writer Marie Nimier.

Further information

Digital resource by the Médiathèque du Centre national de la danse
http://mediatheque.cnd.fr/spip.php?page=mediatheque-numerique-ressource&id=PHO00003944

Company website
Beau Geste

Last update : November 2010

Since 2001, the National Center for Dance (CND) has been making recordings of its shows and educational programming and has created resources from these filmed performances (interviews, danced conferences, meetings with artists, demonstrations, major lessons, symposia specialized, thematic arrangements, etc.).