In October 2010, with no predefined itinerary, swept along by the encounters and roads of Chungcheong, Jeolla, Gyeongsang, and Gangwon provinces, Eun-Me Ahn asked elderly women, for the most part peasants, to dance for her, spontaneously. Some of these grandmothers were 60, others 90. They all looked happy when they danced. They were happy to still be able to dance, and happy that someone had asked them to do so. Their dances were so natural and lively that they drew into their movement the young professional dancers from my troupe. Each of their gestures reflected the harshness of their living conditions. It was as if we were looking at an extract from a documentary speaking both of the past and the ground. The wrinkled bodies of these grandmothers were like a book in which had been recorded lives lived over the past century. Each of their dances represented an era, deployed on a harmonious rhythm in a brief fraction of time. Each time we met one of these women, we found ourselves looking at the History of present-day Korea that was personified in their bodies, as though the latter were a History book of our country, far more concrete than any other account from written or oral tradition.

From these meetings, the images filmed in the provinces, and the reactions of the dancers in the troupe, a spectacle both tender and mind-blowing was born, combining the energies of all to, finally, draw the public into the whirlwind of its energy. A tribute to olden times as much as to the immutable vitality of movement. As Eun-Me Ahn still writes: “For me, movement does not only take place at a given time, but rather represents a kind of fossil called on to be activated at a given time to create, through its different gestures, a whole world of suppleness where the present time is infinitely expanded.”

Source: Lola Gruber, Paris Quartier d’été

The famous custard pie that is the confrontation "between tradition and  modernity"... How many creators have struggled to find the way to  describe what is finally the lot of every artist : one the one hand to  know, understand, integrate what the ancients did; on the other to  forgot them, overcome them and hope to find something new. Quite a vast  program...

On this level, Eun-Me Ahn has found new, unexpected  and exciting ways. This first comes from her itinerary, marked as much  by the learning and exploration of shamanistic tradition as by the many  years spent in New York or a profound friendship with the missed Pina  Bausch (who invited her many times in Wuppertal). Korean and  cosmopolitan, figure of the avant-garde but also choreographer of the  very official 2002 FIFA World Cup opening ceremony in Daegu and  presented in the most important international festivals, she knows  how to improve the beauties of contrast, mow polka dots, stripes and  flower, how to play with the most pop colors before switching to the  most solemn austerity, how to play with the most subtle shades  of androgyny or une slowness to make trance rhythm burst... 

Educated  at the school of rigor, precise, demanding and of a all Korean  discipline, Eun-Me Ahn is also a daredevil performer, ready for all kind  of piracies. One have seen her jump from the top of a crane to attack a  piano with axe and scissors, rip off herself her fairy dress made of  white ties to distribute the pieces to the audience while performing a  teddybear dance, bury herself with a clown costumes under a rain of  baloons, locked up behind bars in a duet with a chicken, or dressed up  as a mushroom...  But one would be wrong thinking it is provocation. It  is rather the affirmation of a curiosity and a freedom held by work and  style pushed to their most unexpected limits. 

Gadja productions

​

Born in 1977, Fabien Plasson is a video director specialized in the field of performing arts (dance , music, etc).

During his studies at the Ecole Nationale des Beaux-Arts de Lyon (joined in 1995) Fabien discovered video art. He was trained by various video artists (Joel Bartoloméo Pascal Nottoli , Eric Duyckaerts , etc).
He first experimented with the creation of installations and cinematic objects.

From 2001 to 2011, he was in charge of Ginger & Fred video Bar’s programming at La Maison de la Danse in Lyon. He discovered the choreographic field and the importance of this medium in the dissemination, mediation and pedagogical approach to dance alongside Charles Picq, who was a brilliant video director and the director of the video department at that time.

Today, Fabien Plasson is the video director at La Maison de la Danse and in charge of the video section of Numeridanse.tv, an online international  video library, and continues his creative activities, making videos of concerts, performances and also creating video sets for live performances.

Sources: Maison de la Danse ; Fabien Plasson website

More information: fabione.fr