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(La)Horde is a choreographic creation collective created in 2011 and directed by Marine Brutti, Jonathan Debrouwer and Arthur Harel. Currently in the artistic direction of the Ballet National de Marseille, they are at the crossroads of dance, visual arts and performance. (La)Horde plays with aesthetic categories and claims the freedom to collaborate with mainstream artists, but also communities invisible by their age or disability, or encountered online. (La)Horde is interested in rebellious bodies, in dance as reunification and in the popular uprisings it can provoke. 

"We wanted to talk about the intimate revolts of youth and so, little by little, we decided to take a particular angle: to highlight this epiphany, the awakening of a generation extremely aware of environmental issues thanks to social networks." #(LA)HORDE

Revolt in and through the bodies

1.  Bodies in resistance 

(La)Horde is interested in the representation of bodies today through social media, in public space, on stage. The desire of this collective is to work with people, communities which “carry powerful revolts in their bodies” as the collective describes it in its interview for the Haute école des arts du Rhin. To do this, they use many choreographic styles (contemporary, traditional dances, jumpstyle ...).  

The Master's Tools

Alain Damasio, author of La horde du contrevent (2004), worked notably with the musician Rone. In his text about Room With a View, Alain Damasio dwells on the rebellious bodies of a youth who have a lot to express in the face of the world that has been left to them: 

“The bodies are young, fresh, explosive - full of chipped bones and tips, squirting fiery and arrogance, with bent fucks and raised fingers in your face. It is a horde which dances and which thinks with its fists and its feet. And who comes to challenge you, in a hacked hacka, where what reddens is less the skin of the breasts stripped bare, without mercy, than the sudden realization, in your soul of voyeur, than what we left them, in fact, we older people, this growing generation, that's it: a dirty world that they will have to fix." 

To Da Bone (teaser)

(La)Horde takes a look at this youth who uses the Internet to communicate through dance and express their power. By discovering jumpstyle online, the collective looked into this actual global phenomenon. The dancer must remain within the framework of a fixed camera, the movements are transmitted online: the "post-Internet" dance is born.  

2. Dance as an act of resistance  

Form them, bodies as political. Whether they demonstrate in public spaces, whether they fight against social injustices or oppose societal injunctions, dance becomes the expression of anger and demands.  

Bassiani is an LGBTQ club in the Georgian capital Tbilisi, which welcomes fans of techno music. It is a symbol of social and political emancipation. Following a police raid on the club, a giant rave party was organized in front of the Parliament. This protest was carried out by dancing in a peaceful manner and lasted for three days. In Marry me in Bassiani (2019), (LA) HORDE brings together the folklore tradition and the techno scene of Georgia, a country that roars with freedom under a very conservative varnish. 

Dancing to come together

1.  By mobilizing other forms of art

Although electronic music seems to be the common denominator of (La)Horde's shows, the collective develops an abundant wealth of thought. Thanks to protean proposals, a modern vision of society is transmitted to us.  

The spectator's moment (2019): (la)Horde

Questioning the concept of post-internet dances and performance, (La)Horde also likes to intertwine styles and create explosive marriages: videos, verbal play between dancers, multimedia, traditional dances, and of course techno. Room With a View confirms the collective's taste for this music: in collaboration with artist Rone, they present the last rave before the apocalypse.  

"Dance is at the heart of our work and around it we develop choreographic pieces, films, performances and installations. We have built a multifaceted job that is constantly enriching itself." #(LA)HORDE

Interview de Rone

2. Room With a View: a collective response to ecological collapse  

"We thought of this spectacle as one of a difficult awakening of consciousness, of a march forced by the overwhelming prospect of collapse." #RONE & (LA)HORDE  

Room With A View (video clip)

The main message of Room with a View is the ecological and social emergency, a topic that was dear to Rone, the composer, but also to (La) Horde. Seeking to make the conscience react optimistically, Room With A View invites us to question ourselves about the environmental collapse that man causes. Thanks to an invigorating and solar dance, Rone and (La) Horde call us to imagine an ecological and human fight.  

"The collapse is the central theme, but the important thing for us is this question: how do you make the audience stand out with this 'niac' that you show on stage?" #RONE & (LA)HORDE

This exhibition was produced by a group of students from the University of Lyon 2, graduating from the Performing Arts master's degree, in collaboration with the Biennale de la danse - 2021 and Numeridanse. 

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