Lointain is an outmoded and contemplative piece.
The subject of study in this piece is musical emotion…
How can one create osmosis between the abstract structure of a choreographic project and the “romanticism” of a musical score?
The narrative form of the music serves as a catalyst, a form of emotional provocation as in film: it’s the ear that makes us see.
Playing with theatrical illusion and the apparent “poverty” of its materials, Lointain imposes itself as a foveal piece where all elements are unidirectional: light sources, mono-sound diffusion, dance, singular costumes.
The choice to work from act 2 scene 2 of Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde for a male-female duet came to me like a gamble: Tristan and Isolde do not “consummate” their love. They are in the living flux of becoming and of organic fulfilment, of progressive revelation.
The musical structure of the opera is surprising; its entire architecture is constructed around the search for a note which will only become perceptible at the moment of Isolde’s death… An abstract project which underlies the work; and there again, a gamble.
The work of the body emerges from forty positions taken by the dancers within the everyday space of an apartment, then these positions are decontextualized and reinvented in an empty place; but the layout of the apartment (its blueprint) is preserved, allowing an imaginary spatial disposition to be retained… Following this, a sort of labyrinth is set up in which the two bodies move maintaining a very close space between the two dancers to procure a “sympathetic proximity” in the spectator.  There’s a sort of impossibility of contact, though the bodies are always on the edge of brushing against each other.

Source : CCN Caen, Normandy

Lointain is an outmoded and contemplative piece.

The subject of study in this piece is musical emotion… 

How can one create osmosis between the abstract structure of a choreographic project and the “romanticism” of a musical score?

The narrative form of the music serves as a catalyst, a form of emotional provocation as in film: it’s the ear that makes us see.

Playing with theatrical illusion and the apparent “poverty” of its materials, Lointain imposes itself as a foveal piece where all elements are unidirectional: light sources, mono-sound diffusion, dance, singular costumes.

The choice to work from act 2 scene 2 of Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde for a male-female duet came to me like a gamble: Tristan and Isolde do not “consummate” their love. They are in the living flux of becoming and of organic fulfilment, of progressive revelation.

The musical structure of the opera is surprising; its entire architecture is constructed around the search for a note which will only become perceptible at the moment of Isolde’s death… An abstract project which underlies the work; and there again, a gamble.

The work of the body emerges from forty positions taken by the dancers within the everyday space of an apartment, then these positions are decontextualized and reinvented in an empty place; but the layout of the apartment (its blueprint) is preserved, allowing an imaginary spatial disposition to be retained… Following this, a sort of labyrinth is set up in which the two bodies move maintaining a very close space between the two dancers to procure a “sympathetic proximity” in the spectator.  There’s a sort of impossibility of contact, though the bodies are always on the edge of brushing against each other.

Alban Richard discovered contemporary dance while he was pursuing literary and musical studies. From the late 1990s, he worked for various choreographers such as Odile Duboc, Olga de Soto and Rosalind Crisp.

In 2000, Alban Richard founded Ensemble l'Abrupt for which he created about thirty very different pieces, always in close interaction with a musical work whose writing and formal structure he questioned. Consequently, each creation opens up new research and a new performance style, setting itself apart from the previous one. The way he develops his shows, using restricted improvisations to devise the work directly on stage, encourages the performers to become creators of their own dance.

Alban Richard has collaborated with the Alla francesca ensemble, Les Talens Lyriques, Les Percussions de Strasbourg, the Ensemble intercontemporain, IRCAM and the Cairn, Instant Donné and Alternance ensembles, as well as with composers Arnaud Rebotini, Sebastian Rivas, Erwan Keravec, Jérôme Combier, Laurent Perrier, Raphaël Cendo, Robin Leduc, Paul Clift, Wen Liu and Matthew Barnson.

A prolific choreographer, Alban Richard is regularly invited by ballets and companies, both internationally (Canada, Lithuania, Norway) and in France, to create commissioned works.

Since 2015 he has been artistic director of the centre chorégraphique national de Caen en Normandie, with a project based on both his practice as an author and on connecting with the territory and its inhabitants.

More information : https://ccncn.eu/english/

Having picked up a passion for the audiovisual at an early age from his two brothers, Nicolas Simon quickly developed a love of cinema and began making short films in his teenage years. He studied at the audiovisual ESRA school in Rennes, where he made two 16mm short films. In 2004, he met Emmanuelle Vo-Din, who introduced him to the world of contemporary dance. 

In 2008 he completed Making Rainbow, a documentary retracing the five months over which the first edition of the performance Rainbow was created. He then co-directed Le Grand Éléphant - L’Aventure des Constructeurs, filmed over two years in the workshop of La Machine as they designed and built the Grand Elephant of Île de Nantes: a giant, animatronic elephant. Alongside regular collaborations with several choreographers, including, Alban Richard, Margot Dorléans, Sylvain Riéjou, Daniel Dobbels as well as the companies Le Pôle and PJPP, Nicolas Simon has made several documentaries, including Les Constructeurs d’Éole and Je me souviens.

A place for dance open to everyone, where people come to see, dance and talk.

The centre chorégraphique national de Caen en Normandie is a space of shared projects that questions the world in which we live, a receptive place where dance is at the heart of an artistic, political and civic-minded vision. It is a centre for the creation, hosting, production and dissemination of choreographic works, a hub that acts as a resource for training and research. It is a place shared with artists, residents, associations and cultural institutions, a place open to artistic creation and the contemporary repertoire.

Awakening curiosity, stimulating the desire for knowledge, opening up to differences, sharing real artistic, intellectual and human experiences – these are the challenges identified by Alban Richard for the centre chorégraphique national de Caen en Normandie.

https://ccncn.eu/evenement/lointain/