“Any resemblance between this text and our show will be purely fortuitous, accidental, or even intentional. At the start, at the beginning of the commencement: a suspicion, just a shadow of a suspicion. It's hot. One can hear the muffled noise of the spurs. The saloon door swinging to and fro, to and fro. The sombre, shadowy hero appears suddenly out of the night. He's so quick on the draw. Hombre, what is your number? What is the number of the shadows? There are primary shadows and decimal shadows. There are Chinese shadows, sombre shadows, luminous shadows. There are drop shadows, shadows of the islands of the world. Shadows of a doubt… I am like my shadow, everywhere I go, my shadow is there, everywhere it goes, I am there; I am only a shadow of myself; a body is always with its shadow, a body knows that a shadow is not a corset. Everyone has a shadow, every shadow has someone. What do our shadows do when we have our back turned? Shadows, where do you go at night? But by the way, do we say shadow or a shadow? Is it a he, a she or an it? My shadow: him, or my shadow: her or even it?”

Christophe Salengro d'après Claude Ponti

Credits

Interprètes Philippe Decouflé, Leila Pasquier, Olivier Daviaud, Bertrand Belin, Clémence Galliard, Sébastien Libolt, Alexandra Naudet, Aurélia Petit, Nathalie Hauwelle, Christophe Salengro, Olivier Simola, Flavien Bernezet, Christophe Waksmann création musicale Brian Eno arrangements et autres compositions Sébastien Libolt textes Claude Ponti lumières Patrice Besombes assisté de Begoña Garcia Navas costumes Philippe Guillotel assisté de Jean Maloscénographie Patrice Besombes, Philippe Decouflé création d'images Olivier Simola, Christophe Waksmann, Laurent Radanovic, Roméo Ricard, Dominique Willoughby son Jean-Pierre Spirli / Claire Thiébault musique composée et enregistrée par Brian Eno - Published by Opal Music, London, Opal Ltd., 2006 extraits du film L'Aurore de F.W. Murnau - Courtesy of Twentieth Century Fox

Production déléguée Compagnie DCA - Philippe Decouflé coproduction Théâtre National de Chaillot, Grand Théâtre du Luxembourg, Théâtre de Nîmes, La Coursive - Scène nationale de La Rochelle, TorinoDanza, Sadler's Wells

La Compagnie DCA est subventionnée par la DRAC Ile-de-France - Ministère de la Culture et de la Communication, le Conseil Général de Seine-Saint-Denis et la Ville de Saint- Denis

Réalisation vidéo Charles Picq date du document vidéo 2007 production Maison de la Danse

Durée de l'œuvre 1h30

Dancer, choreographer, director and art director

«As a child, I dreamt of becoming a comic strip artist. Drawing is  usually the start of my creative process. I just throw out ideas and  sketch out pictures that pass through my head. My culture is comics,  musicals, nightclub dancing, and also Oskar Schlemmer, the Bauhaus  choreographer. Discovering photos of characters from his Triadisches  Ballett was a revelation for me. I had always wanted to work with simple  geometric shapes like cubes and triangles. I liked seeing how these  lines and volumes behaved with each other. Alwin Nikolaïs taught me the  importance of light and costume, and the confidence you need to mix  everything together. Technically, it was Merce Cunningham who taught me  the most about dance. I was taking video courses he was giving in New  York. It was fascinating. That’s where I learned how to solve problems  of distance and geometry, and the basic principles of optics and  movement. Tex Avery inspired me a lot in thinking up gestures that are  almost impossible to do. I’ve always kept something of that desire to  create something strange, extreme or crazy in my movements. I’m looking  for a dance style that’s off-balance, always on the verge of toppling  over. With influences like the Marx Brothers, for example, and in  particular Groucho Marx, I’ve developed a taste for naughty risk-taking,  and comic repetition of mistakes.»

Source : Philippe Découflé

More information : cie-dca.com

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