It was at the invitation of the Scottish Dance Theatre that in 2014 Damien Jalet created the spectacle Yama, in a set by the American plastic artist Jim Hodges, on an original Winter Family composition. Yama (which means mountain in Japanese) draws its inspiration from archaic, pagan and animistic rituals. In particular, those who practiced Yamabushi, monks whose rites are perpetuated in the sacred mountains of Tohoku. For them, the mountain is the original matrix. Damien Jalet draws from this a visceral, energetic dance that harks back to the sources of a humanity that has still not broken away from the animal or plant world, but aspires to elevation.

The music rumbles, discovering in the ochres of an arid land, an eye, a dark mouth or a black hole leading to the bowels of the earth. There appears a bustle of legs, arms and chests that, in a hypnotic gesture, cause just as many mandibles, antennae and elytra to appear, plunging us into the mystery of the pupal stage of metamorphosis. The dance is organic, almost shamanic and takes us into the great cycle of transformations. Soon, this primitive, haunting, eruptive and enigmatic festival causes original chaos to surge forth, which finally returns to its initial obscurity.

Credits

French premiere - Created in 2014

Director : Fleur Darkin
Choreography : Damien Jalet 
Choreography's Assistant : Emilios Arapoglou
Assistant : Meytal Blanaru
Director of repetition : Naomi Murray
Music : Winter Family
Musical additions : Gabriele Miracle
Scenography : Jim Hodges
Light : Emma Jones
Costumes : Jean-Paul Lespagnard
Costumes's Assistant : Léa Capisano
Time : 55 min

Damien Jalet is a French and Belgian freelance  choreographer and performer. Since 2000 he’s been working as the closest and most regular collaborator of Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, within Les ballets C. de la B., Toneelhuis and Eastman vzw (he danced in "Rien de Rien", "Fo", "Tempus Fugit", "Myth" and recently "TeZukA").

In 2002 Jalet and Cherkaoui created "d’avant", together with Luc Dunberry and Juan Kruz Diaz de Garaio Esnaola, produced by Sasha Waltz and guests. Jalet and Cherkaoui also signed "Babel(words)". Damien Jalet also regularly works with Icelandic choreographer Erna Ómarsdóttir. Together they’ve been creating a number of works in collaboration with visual artist Gabriela Fridriksdóttir. Ómarsdóttir and Jalet also created "Black Marrow" for the renowned Australian company Chunky Move at the Melbourne international festival 2009.

In 2008 Jalet premiered "Three Spells" with dancer Alexandra Gilbert and composer Christian Fennesz for the Tokyo International Arts Festival. He also worked with other renowned choreographers, such as Wim Vandekeybus ("The day of heaven and hell") and Akram Khan (for whom he devised a solo segment in the piece "Desh")

Jalet has developed a big number of collaborations with high-level artists in different fields, such as theater director Arthur Nauzyciel, visual artists (Antony Gormley, Jim Hodges), musicians (Lady and Bird, Olof Arnalds, Florence + The Machine, Editors). He also worked with photographer Nick Knight and designer Bernhard Willhelm (the video "Men in tights") and with philosopher Giorgio Agemben and contemporary musician Stefano Scodanibio (the opera "Il cielo sulla terra").

In february 2013 he directed an important choreographic installation named "les médusés" in some of the greatest rooms of  Louvre museum in  Paris  with the participation of more than 30 artists from different disciplines. In Mai 2013 he creates in collaboration with Cherkaoui and legendary performance artist Marina Abramovic, a new version of Ravel's "Bolero" for the Paris Opera Ballet, the costumes were designed by Givenchy's artistic director Riccardo Tisci and the 11 dancer's cast included étoiles Aurélie Dupont, Marie Agnès Gillot and Jérémie  Bélingard.

Source : Damien Jalet’s website

More information : damienjalet.com