Choreography: Dominique Bagouet

Water, earth, several brightly-colored mosaic tiles appear, slightly faded, out of this red clay in which the Alhambra was formed. Dominique Bagouet has succumbed to the charms of the gardens of Granada. Accidental archaeologist, infidel amongst the infidels, Christian in the realm of Islam, insolent contemporary taking refuge in the delicate Arabo-Andalusian art of living, and creating out of it a fantasy for our spirits, with his nine dancers and five musicians : five centuries after the fall of Granada, he in turn invades its gardens. Although his invasion is certainlly more peaceful than that of the Catholic kings, ravaging the last vestiges of a civilization in decline, in the name of the Eternal.

On a summer day, in another peaceful garden, that of the Chartreuse at Villeneuve-lez-Avignon, Bagouet listened while its director, Daniel Girard, told a sad, beautiful story inspired by Louis Aragon's poem “The Night before Granada was taken”. And he learned that, in the same year as Columbus arrived in America, the Emir Boabdil surrendered his city rather than see it destroyed.

Between the Christian monastery and the Palace of the Moorish King, between the murmuring of the fountains and the moaning of the Emir chased from his Garden of Eden, strange messages are exchanged and interwoven, the choreographer playing the role of go-between. With one of those about-faces of which only he knows the secret, leaving behind the rigorous geometry of his “Déserts d'amour” or “Le Crawl de Lucien”, the shadows of “Assaï”, the fantasies of “Les petites pièces de Berlin”, the brilliant virtuosity of “So Schnell”, while perhaps retaining something of the pleasant incongruities of “Le Saut de l'ange” or of “Jours étranges”. He is determined therefore to play the “soft tourist”, he who, full of art and history, can think and dream. And who can't escape from his status as a foreigner, projecting his fantasies into the velvety space of the fountains of Granada.

Against a variegated background of diverse kinds of music. Arabo-Andalusian of course, but also Flamenco, the shrill cries of the bullfight and the virulent sound of a contemporary Spanish rock band, his dance opens before us like a sketch-book.

Twenty-one sequences filled with harem women and emirs, hammams and minarets, gliding imperceptibly over a running stream linking past and present. Between myth and reality, all of his co-artists have reconstructed a small piece of history. Danka Semenowicz and her powerful stage setting. Dominique Fabrègue and her casual costumes. Manuel Bernard with his avalanches of light. Laurent Gachet and his humming background soundtrack. So that, gently brashily, haunted by silhouettes sprung from our imagination, a joyful Andalusia is reborn before our eyes, a primordial Andalusia, cardinal point of our pleasure and our loves.

Sources: Chantal Aubry -  juillet 1991

Credits

Choreography: Dominique Bagouet

Duration: 58'

Dancers and musicians: Rita Cioffi, Priscilla Danton, Matthieu Doze, Olivia Grandville, Dominique Jégou, Catherine Legrand, Sylvain Prunenec, Fabrice Ramalingom, Juan Manuel Vicente and the groupe Gas Gas Gas.

Music: arabo andalouse, polyphonies and airs populaires espagnols, Sven Lava Pohlhammer, Luis Segura, Angel Vasquez, Violetta Parra, Laurent Gachet

Assistant: Anne Abeille

Scenery: Danka Semenowicz

Stage lighting: Manuel Bernard

Costumes: Dominique Fabrègue

Direction: Charles Picq

Production: Agat Films et cie, Les Carnets Bagouet, Centre Georges Pompidou, La Coursive.

Contribution: CNC, Adami, Conseil régional Languedoc Roussillon, Maison de la Danse, La Sept/Arte.

Date of creation : July 26th 1991, cloître du cimetière de la Chartreuse de Villeneuve-lez-Avignon

Recorded in May 1993, La Coursive, scène nationale de La Rochelle

Last update: December 2012

Angoulême, July 9 1951 - Montpellier, December 9 1992

From 1965, Dominique Bagouet received a classical instruction from Rosella Hightower in Cannes, and was firstly engaged in the Ballet du Grand Théâtre of Geneva at Alfonso Cata's in 1969. He danced the following year with the Félix Blaska's company and joined Béjart's 20th Century Ballet in Brussels. The experience lasted two years and continued with the Chandra group (where Maguy Marin also worked).

Back to Paris in 1974, Dominique Bagouet took tuitions with Carolyn Carlson and Peter Goss. He also danced in the Joseph Russillo's, Anne Béranger's and Peter Goss' companies. Then he left for the United States where he discovered with Jennifer Muller, Lar Lubovitch and others, the techniques of the American schools.

Back to France in 1976, he presented his first choreography “Chansons de nuit” at the Concours de Bagnolet and won the first prize with a mention for research. He then founded his first company. He created play after play, at a fast pace he deplored, in order to make his company survive. Until 1979, he created 14 plays, sometimes hastily and unsatisfactorily.

With “Sous la blafarde”, the young choreographer began to stand out and Montpellier became his haven: the town welcomed the company and gave it the resources to exist as Bagouet was asked to set up and run the Centre Chorégraphique Régional de Montpellier. Besides, he was to create in this town the Festival International Montpellier Danse that he would run until 1982.

Dominique Bagouet created then some of the most outstanding plays in French contemporary choreography, from “Insaisies” (1982) to “Necesito, pièce pour grenade” (1991), the last commission written to celebrate the 500th anniversary of the Spanish town.

With plays such as “Déserts d'amour” (1984), “Le Crawl de Lucien” (1985) and “Assaï” (1986), Dominique Bagouet clearly established his own personality and style. All these plays registered his very particular style, sometimes referred to as ‘neobaroque', but above all very subtle and inventive. Bagouet's choreographic approach developed the dance movement with numerous short gestures (movements with hands and feet, special incline of the chest…) with terrific precision and no mannerisms.

Moreover, and this is another characteristic of Bagouet, the choreographer always managed to work with talented artists, such as Christian Boltanski, Pascal Dusapin for “Le Saut de l'ange” (1987), Tristan Murail for “Déserts d'amour” or the actress Nelly Borgeaud for the superb “Meublé sommairement” (1989) choreographically adapted from a novel by Emmanuel Bove.

He also directed two films with Charles Picq: “Tant mieux, tant mieux!” (1983) and “Dix anges, portraits”(1988), from “Le Saut de l'ange".

If a Bagouet style existed, it would also lie in this curiosity which influenced a whole generation.

His company's dancers founded in 1993 Les Carnets Bagouet, an association dedicated to preserving and passing on the choreographer's artistic heritage. They offer the repertoire to other companies and schools.

Source: Extract of “99 biographies pour comprendre la jeune danse française” in les saisons de la danse, summer 97, special issue.

More information: www.lescarnetsbagouet.org

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

Compagnie Bagouet

Dominique Bagouet created The Company Dominique Bagouet in 1977, with some dancers (also his friends). He obtained the first prize of the choreographic Competition of Bagnolet thanks to his first choreography “Chansons de nuit”. As the company did not have a real workplace in Paris, the first seasons were difficult, nevertheless the company gets some commands of short pieces. The Company settled down in Montpellier in 1979, after the invitation of Georges Frêche, mayor of the city at the time. In 1980, the company became the regional Dance Centre.

In1984, Dominique Bagouet created “Déserts d'amour”, the piece which made the company internationally known. The work of creation constantly developed and numerous works were presented every year at the Festival International Montpellier Danse.

Dominique Bagouet often left his team of the Centre chorégraphique (which had become a national centre in 1984) to the hands of guest choreographers such as Susan Buirge, Trisha Brown, but also to his own dancers, who made their debuts as choreographers: Michel Kelemenis, Bernard Glandier, Olivia Grandville, Hélène Cathala and Fabrice Ramalingom.

In 1990, after ten years of presence in Montpellier, during which the company met with success, Dominique Bagouet asked for a better working tool and considered the development of the Convent of Ursulines to develop several axes: creation, repertoire, pedagogy and residences of invited artists. Unfortunately, the disease took him and his project was only completed after his death in 1992.

Sources : www.lescarnetsbagouet.org

Last update : December 2013