For her first production as director of the Centre Chorégraphique National in Rillieux-la-Pape, Maguy Marin's 'Salves' was a real hit at the last Biennial. A clearly political piece in the strongest sense of the word, 'Salves' masterfully condenses her journey and extraordinary vision of choreographic art. This piece of milimetric chaos, with its immense rhythmic score for seven performers and long-standing members and a breathtaking onstage precision, distils a colossal amount of restrained violence. 'Umwelt', 'Ha ! Ha !', 'Turba', 'Description d'un Combat' and now 'Salves': Maguy Marin's recent pieces may well be disturbing, but they are necessary for what they show and what they assert, from a present viewed as a field of ruins left behind by the great collective catastrophes of the 20th century.  

"When I began this new piece, I remembered that when we made 'Turba', there was something about Lucretius' 'De rerum natura'1 that had got us very excited: atoms are constantly deteriorating, but at some time while they are decreasing, they deviate from their course, which is called the clinamen. An atom only needs to deviate slightly from its parallel trajectory in order to collide with others, which could mean the birth of a new world, the invention of a new life form which could give way to incredible consequences. Similarly, in reference to Franz Kafka's parable on which our last piece, 'Description d'un Combat', was based, Hannah Arendt wrote that man's presence opens up a hole in the continuum of time between past and future, thus causing opposite forces to deviate very slightly from their initial direction, creating a diagonal force that resembles what physicians call a parallelogram of forces. Alluding to Walter Benjamin's ‘loss of experience’, which arose from the repeated collective catastrophes of the 20th century which transformed that present into a field of ruins devoid of integration into history – in other words, with neither memory nor future – Georges Didi-Huberman, in his book 'Survivance des lucioles'2
, suggests that we “elevate, in each specific situation, this decline into dignity, a new beauty, by making this very poverty into an experience following Walter Benjamin's example, a man for whom decline did not mean disappearance.” We must “organise pessimism”, Benjamin would say. That is, work to foster these resistant diagonal forces, the source of inestimable moments which survive forgetting; these voices which, from the dawn of time, have been making contact with us. We need to work on our pessimism and our fears to escape the prevailing fear that crushes us and renders us powerless, sad and exhausted. We do this with the support of seven performers, our partners in previous productions."

Source : Maguy Marin

Maguy Marin was born in Toulouse in 1951 and studied dance at the conservatory there before joining the Strasbourg Ballet. In 1970 she was accepted at Maurice Béjart’s school Mudra, where she stayed three years before becoming a soloist (for four seasons) with the Ballet of the 20th Century, under the direction of Maurice Béjart. A turning point would come at the end of this period seeing her shed all her previously held conceptions “allowing a multitude of creative choices, liberty and also constraints to emerge. Nothing was ever the same”. She also began questioning the body types idealized within the dance world, a subject that would become central in her work. “With Maurice Béjart the body was magnified. Youth, virtuosity, everything sparkled. And I had a problem with that. I asked myself what happened to all those other bodies, the ones that were infirm, misshapen or uncoordinated, but who managed to keep standing nonetheless.” 

Between 1980 and 1997 Maguy Marin was based at the Maison des arts in Créteil, with her company becoming an official Choreographic Centre in 1985. 

From 1998 until 2011 she directed the National Choreographic Centre in Rillieux-la-Pape. After which time the company once again became independent, setting up in Toulouse in order to continue their creative research. In 2015 the company moved again, this time to Sainte Foy-lès-Lyon, where they set up in an old carpentry factory. Their tenure there would allow them to continue to open up the immaterial space of that which is shared, something that obstinately seeks to make itself manifest while encouraging the unfolding of a new ambitious project: RAMDAM, AN ART CENTRE. It is a place of horizontal sharing, dedicated to hosting artists and audience members alike. It is also a place intent on facilitating an on-going exchange and continuous circulation between those conducting research, amateurs, students, spectators and volunteers; as well as creating bridges between different artistic practices, laboratories, places for public relations, education and reflection. 

- 1978: Grand Prix du Concours chorégraphique international de Bagnolet - 2003: Grand Prix de la danse du Syndicat de la critique for
Les applaudissements ne se mangent pas
- 2003: American Dance Festival Award 

- 2006: Special jury prize Syndicat de la critique for Umwelt
- 2008: Bessie Award for Umwelt presented at the Joyce Theater
- 2008: Grand Prix de la danse du Syndicat de la critique for Turba
- 2011: Prix Danza & Danza for “Best Contemporary Dance Piece » for Salves - 2016: Golden Lion, Venice Biennale 

More information : compagnie-maguy-marin.fr

Author, filmmaker and video artist Charles Picq (1952-2012) entered working life in the 70s through theatre and photography. A- fter resuming his studies (Maîtrise de Linguistique - Lyon ii, Maîtrise des sciences et Techniques de la Communication - grenoble iii), he then focused on video, first in the field of fine arts at the espace Lyonnais d'art Contemporain (ELAC) and with the group « Frigo », and then in dance.
   On creation of the Maison de la Danse in Lyon in 1980, he was asked to undertake a video documentation project that he has continued ever since. During the ‘80s, a decade marked in France by the explosion of contemporary dance and the development of video, he met numerous artists such as andy Degroat, Dominique Bagouet, Carolyn Carlson, régine Chopinot, susanne Linke, Joëlle Bouvier and regis Obadia, Michel Kelemenis. He worked in the creative field with installations and on-stage video, as well as in television with recorded shows, entertainment and documentaries.

His work with Dominique Bagouet (80-90) was a unique encounter. He documents his creativity, assisting with Le Crawl de Lucien and co-directing with his films Tant Mieux, Tant Mieux and 10 anges. in the 90s he became director of video development for the Maison de la Danse and worked, with the support of guy Darmet and his team, in the growing space of theatre video through several initiatives:
       - He founded a video library of dance films with free public access. This was a first for France. Continuing the video documentation of theatre performances, he organised their management and storage.
       - He promoted the creation of a video-bar and projection room, both dedicated to welcoming school pupils.
       - He started «présentations de saisons» in pictures.
       - He oversaw the DVD publication of Le tour du monde en 80 danses, a pocket video library produced by the Maison de la Danse for the educational sector.

       - He launched the series “scènes d'écran” for television and online. He undertook the video library's digital conversion and created Numeridanse.

His main documentaries are: enchaînement, Planète Bagouet, Montpellier le saut de l'ange, Carolyn Carlson, a woman of many faces, grand ecart, Mama africa, C'est pas facile, Lyon, le pas de deux d'une ville, Le Défilé, Un rêve de cirque.

He has also produced theatre films: Song, Vu d'ici (Carolyn Carlson), Tant Mieux, Tant Mieux, 10 anges, Necesito and So schnell, (Dominique Bagouet), Im bade wannen, Flut and Wandelung (Susanne Linke), Le Cabaret Latin (Karine Saporta), La danse du temps (Régine Chopinot), Nuit Blanche (Abou Lagraa), Le Témoin (Claude Brumachon), Corps est graphique (Käfig), Seule et WMD (Françoise et Dominique Dupuy), La Veillée des abysses (James Thiérrée), Agwa (Mourad Merzouki), Fuenteovejuna (Antonio Gades), Blue Lady revistied (Carolyn Carlson).

Source: Maison de la Danse de Lyon