A choreographic extract remodelled by the group La Mécanique du Bonheur, coordinator Stéphanie Roussel, as part of the “Danse en amateur et repertoire” programme 2022/2023 (a programme created to assist and promote amateur dancing).

Transmission by Marie-Odile Langlère. 

Presented on 3 June 2023, Le Triangle, Cité de la danse, in Rennes.

The piece when it was created 

Rites 

Firstly produced 17 February 1967 

Choreography: Jacqueline Robinson 

Work for eight performers: Anne Lecouvreur, Isabelle Lemarchand, Marie-France Frisch, Éliane Garcia, Nicole Princer, Geneviève Piguet, Françoise Saint Thibault, Jacqueline Robinson  

Popular music suggested by Deben Bhattacharya 

The group 

Created in 2010 in Blois, this dance troupe is made up of 12 seniors, some of whom had never attended a dance class before joining the group. Dance teacher Françoise Durand gives them classes and other workshops alongside their performances. The troupe is also planning to create and present a series of short works to be performed in various public spaces. This is the second time that La Mécanique du Bonheur has performed in the Amateur Dance and Repertoire programme: in 2017, the group performed extracts from La Jeune Fille et la mort (2012) by choreographer Thomas Lebrun. 

The project 

La Mécanique du Bonheur chose an extract from Rites, created in 1967 by Jacqueline Robinson for her professional dance students, and reprised in 1986. Only one 16 minute sequence remains of this work, whose themes include primitive myths, time and the invisible. Danced to traditional Indian and African music, it has all the hallmarks of Robinson’s work: musicality, use of space, internalised movement and so on. The group reconstructed the piece, with the help of Marie-Odile Langlère, who performed in Rites, using video footage and notes made by Jacqueline Robinson, who consulted ethnomusicologist Deben Bhattacharya during the process of creation.  

Jacqueline Robinson (1922-2000) was a pioneering figure in French modern dance alongside Françoise and Dominique Dupuy, Karin Waehner and Jerome Andrews. Born in London, she founded the Atelier de la Danse in 1955, six years after moving to Paris. Initially trained in music, she was subsequently taught by a protegee of Mary Wigman, then by Wigman herself in Berlin where she stayed in 1954. In her expressive style, the shape, meaning and feeling of the movement come together as one. She hosted both professional and amateur dancers in her studio and created almost 200 solo and ensemble works. Her autobiographical work, Modern Dance in France (1920-1970) An Adventure tells the story of her career. 

Source: programme of the CND - Centre national de la danse

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.

Amateur Dance and Repertory is a companion program to amateur practice beyond the dance class and the technical learning phase. Intended for groups of amateur dancers, it opens a space of sharing for those who wish to deepen a practice and a knowledge of the dance in relation to its history.

Laurent Barré
 Head of Research and Choreographic Directories
Anne-Christine Waibel
 Research Assistant and Choreographic Directories
 +33 (0)1 41 83 43 96
danse-amateur-repertoire@cnd.fr

Source: CN D

More information: https://www.cnd.fr/en/page/323-danse-en-amateur-et-repertoire-grant-programme