After responding to the commission for the 2009 season of the Suresnes Cités Danse festival, which meant presenting a 30-minute work after 25 days of rehearsal with five non-professional hip-hop dancers, Pierre Rigal decided to pursue this adventure beyond the festival. “Asphalte” is a piece staged for five hip-hop dancers, each specialising in a different technique: Break, Popping, New Style, Liquid and Krumping. Four boys and a girl. Pierre Rigal focuses on these techniques and uses them to direct the dancers towards his own choreographic world. The characters constantly travel around a three-dimensional block of light, a sort of variable and interactive monolith. As they perform in front of this abstract light, the dancers create urban silhouettes which evolve as they pass. They move through absurd situations of violence, humour, war and poetry. They gradually transform, losing their humanity, their organic quality, to become robots. By using a particular posture, choreography or clothing, thanks to the different mobile lights that they display, the silhouettes slowly metaporphose into monstrous and ghostly creatures, disquieting but funny at the same time. The graphic universe is that of a city which might have been created by comics and science fiction, a multi-media and cinematographic world. The calm of this imaginary city is disturbed by an abstract and insidious violence, by a war which does not really give its name. This war is painful, of course, but is also full of humour and joy. It is this which dictates the evolution of the characters, who progressively abandon their humanity and are gradually eaten away from within by mysterious, autonomous living entities. Finally, at the height of the conflicts, commotion and blows, the bodies of the characters are thrown into the air and finish hurled to the ground, inert. On the icy asphalt of this imaginary city.
In this piece, Pierre Rigal is interested in the impact of contexts, environments and cultures on the human body. By linking choreography with graphics, the link between humanity and its organisation becomes the real issue. Pierre Rigal attempts to define what of their true humanity individuals are obliged to abandon progressively in the face of their context. The result is both sad and funny.


Sources : Maison de la Danse programming

Credits


Choreography Pierre Rigal
Dance performed Compagnie dernière minute
Conception, chorégraphie, lumières Pierre Rigal interprétation Mathieu Hernandez, Hervé Kanda, Yoann Nirennold, Camille Regneault, Julien Saint-Maximin assistante artistique, costumes Mélanie Chartreux constructeur décor, lumières Frédéric Stoll musique Julien Lepreux régie lumières Gisèle Pape
Commande et production Théâtre de Suresnes Jean Vilar-Suresnes Cités danse 2009, créée le 10 janvier 2009.
Coproduction cie dernière minute, Suresnes Cités danse 2009 et TGP - CDN de Saint-Denis et Le Parvis - scène nationale Tarbes-Pyrénées avec le soutien du Théâtre Garonne à Toulouse, de la DRAC Midi-Pyrénées, de la Région Midi-Pyrénées et la Ville de Toulouse.

La compagnie dernière minute reçoit le soutien de la Fondation BNP Paribas pour le développement de ses projets.

Réalisation vidéo Charles Picq date du document vidéo 2009 production Maison de la Danse
Durée de l'œuvre 50 min

Born in 1973 in Moissac, France.
Top athlete, specialist in 400m and 400m steeple races, Pierre Rigal obtained a degree in mathematical economics at the university of social sciences of Toulouse, then a bachelor’s degree in cinema at the superior school of audiovisual in Toulouse.
While he was training as a dancer, he met choreographers such as Heddy Maalem, Bernardo Montet, Wim Vandekeybus, Nacera Belaza, Philippe Découflé and stage directors such as Mladen Materic and Guy Alloucherie.
In 2002 he was part of the company Gilles Jobin for the creation of the piece « Under Construction » and the revival of « The Moebius Strip » (2003-2006).
At the same time, he worked as a director for video clips and documentary films, such as Balade à Hué that he directed in 2001 for the french broadcasting channel France 3.
In November 2003, Pierre Rigal founded the company dernière minute, conceived and performed his first play « erection » co-directed with Aurélien Bory at the Théatre National of Toulouse.
In June 2005, he performed for the choreographer Ariry Andriamoratsiresy in the solo « Dans la peau d’un autre » for the program ‘Vif du sujet’ produced by the SACD / Montpellier Danse.
In October 2006 he created the play « arrêts de jeu » with Aurélien Bory at the Théatre National of Toulouse.
In May 2007 he took part in the event « comme un été » at the Théatre National of Toulouse by presenting « La mort est vivante » a photo-photographic installation.
In February 2008, he was commissioned by the London Gate Theatre to create and perform a new solo : « Press » and « At the end » of 2008 he created the solo « Que serai-je serai-je » for the dancer Mélanie Chartreux who won the national competition of ‘Talents Danse Adami’.
In 2009, he created « Asphalte » a hip-hop theatre play for the Festival Suresnes Cités Danse and for the Maison de la Danse of Lyon.
During the 2010 Avignon festival, he presented « Micro » which was then hosted at the Théatre Vidy-Lausane in January 2011 for development and creation of the final version.
In July 2011 he directed the video clip « Give me a light » taken from the show micro.
In February 2012, he created « Standards », a piece for 8 hip-hop dancers for the 20 year anniversary of the Festival Suresnes Cités Danse, the longer version was developed for the Marseille Festival in June 2012. That same year, he created « Théâtre des opérations » a piece for 9 Korean dancers at the LG Arts Center in Seoul. The play then came to Europe at the Festival d’Automne in Normandy and at the Théatre du Rond-Point in Paris.
In 2013, Pierre collaborated with Jean-Michel Ribes for the revival of Théatre sans animaux and Emmanuel Daumas for the play « Anna », by specifically working on the comedians’ movement.
In July 2013 he created « Bataille » for the Avignon Festival, a piece for Hassan Razak and Pierre Cartonnet for the program Sujets à Vif. The full version of this duo was created on the 2nd of December 2013 at the Douai Hippodrome for the festival Les Multipistes.
Concurrently to this Pierre Rigal regularly gives workshops in different institutions, particularly at the Korean National Dance Company of Seoul or at the Vaganova Academy in St Petersburg.

Source: Cie Dernière Minute 's website

More information : pierrerigal.net