This show was born out of Aurélien Bory's desire to go to China to meet artists in the town of Dalian, who are the most technically accomplished in the world. He wanted to work with them to compose a contemporary visual tale inspired by a game which dates back to Chinese antiquity: the tangram, or in Chinese “qi qiao ban”, which means “the seven boards of cunning”. This is a solitaire game, based seven geometrical elements: five triangles of three different sizes, a square and a parallelogram, which must be assembled to form one large square. The game's components are manœuvred by sixteen people who stand them up, climb on them, get into them, following their changing forms, slip into a hollow cube, construct improbable and ephemeral edifices.


Source : Maison de la Danse programme

Aurélien Bory was born in Colmar in 1972. His studies in physics in Strasbourg led him to the field of architectural acoustics.  He then ended his scientific curriculum in 1995.  He settled in Toulouse where he joined the creative studio at the Lido, the Circus Arts Centre. In 1998, he played in Theatre Tattoo's "L'Odyssée" directed by Mladen Materic.  In 2000 he founded Compagnie 111 with actor Olivier Alenda.  He then conceived and began the six-year-long space trilogy project, in collaboration with Phil Soltanoff, including "IJK", "Plan B" and "Plus ou moins l'infini" (More or less, Infinity).
In 2003 he directed Pierre Rigal in his first solo creation Erection, the stem of their ungoing collaboration, which also originated their second work together: Arrêts de Jeu premiered in 2006. Merging various other fields, he created "Taoub" in 2004 in Tangier with twelve moroccan acrobats, this very show will launch the international career of the Groupe acrobatique de Tanger (Tangier Acrobatic Group).  In 2008 Aurélien was the recipient of the "Créateur sans frontières" (Creator without borders)/ Radio France trophy for his international creations, notably "Les sept planches de la ruse" (The seven boards of skill) created in China in 2007 with performers from Dalian. In 2008 and 2009, he conceived two creations: "Questcequetudeviens?", a portrait of a woman, and "Sans Objet", a piece for an industrial robot. His creations include different artistic fields : theatre, circus, dance, visual arts, music...  His genre-crossing approach is inscribed within the question of space and is explored through his distinctive scenography. In 2016, he created "ESPÆCE" based on the French writer Georges Perec 's work, at the Festival d'Avignon (France).

Source: Company 111 's website ; Plan Bey 's press file

More information : cie111.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

Artistic Direction: Aurélien Bory

Creation: 2000

The stage is a space. It can be defined as the rectangular plane of the stage-platform and the equivalent volume of air. This space is the only medium where one cannot escape the laws of general mechanics. This particularity is important to me. Both bodies and objects are inescapably subjected to gravity. My proposition is to summon the means of the body, as well as the means of the stage, whatever they may be, to contemplate this fact. Bodies and objects both are relevant regarding gravity. The relationship between the individual and space, every single element of this relation, is what I am interested in studying on stage.
 

Our theater apprehends the stage as a physical space, where physical actions are formulated. Etymologically, the actor is performing the action. A play is a serie of actions. At the circus, the extraordinary is foretold. It’s not so at the theater ; it shows up by surprise. At the circus the extraordinary-being is invoked, whereas at the theater, we come and see our fellowman. The stage is a world. The actor dwells there, in this space, and the issue is to question the place of man in the world. My starting point is the interaction between these two elements: the scenic space as a world, and the actors as the ordinary men.
 

The issue of space raises the question of limits. The limit is the unknown. It sharpens our craving for discovery. It embodies the place of creation. Our theater is at the junction of different arts : the circus, dance, visual arts, music… but our concern to renew the form and the thrill to remain unlabelled are more important than belonging to a definite field. I’d rather the form emerged at the edge of things.
 

My work originates from different contexts. My every collaboration can be contemplated as a crossbreeding between different, converging fields. Each creation can be inscribed at the crossroad with another definite context : belonging to an artist’s, or to a place, to a practice, or a particular domain… In each case, my process remains the same : we need to push things around to the fringe, at the place of wonderings.

Source : Cie 111 's website

More information : cie111.com