Ida is a woman who laughs, dances and monologues in search of her imaginary twin sister. She watches television and entrusts the remote control to her dog Love who flicks between different dance sequences. Finally, the picture of Ida appears on the screen, telling Ida who watches her, a story about a dog and sugar, while dancers wearing army fatigues invade the room. 

 Inspired by the show Nouvelles by Mark Tompkins, in turn based on the novel Ida by Gertrude Stein, this film borrows, in its form and editing, a few narrative processes from the American novelist: extreme simplicity of situations, storytelling loops and associations of ideas. Mark Tompkins has long worked in the spirit of Stein: his dance is fluid and simple, often without “state”. And is it a pure coincidence that his company is called the International Dreams Association: IDA?

Source : Patrick Bossatti

Mark Tompkins is an American dancer, choreographer and teacher living in France since 1973. After a series of solos and group collaborations, he founds his company, I.D.A. in 1983. Over the years, Tompkins' unique way of fabricating unidentified performance objects has become his signature. Solos, group pieces and concerts that mix dance, music, voice, text and video are steps of this journey initiated in the 70's, and continued with the complicity of set and costume designer Jean-Louis Badet since 1988. His passion for improvisation and Real time composition leads him to collaborate with many dancers, musicians, video makers and light designers. Renowned for his teaching, he travels extensively around the world. Winner of the International Choreography Contest in Bagnolet in 1984. He has created works nearly every year since then.

Source : Mark Tompkins’s website