Plexus comes from Late Latin and means ‘interlacing’. In its later anatomical meaning, it refers to a ‘network of nerves or vessels’. This word therefore indicates both the internal mechanism of muscular movement, nerve impulses and oxygenated blood, and the external mechanics of dance, interwoven gestures, movements, bodies or body parts. For the second time, I wanted to create the portrait of a woman, not as in a painting, a photograph or in literature – which are largely superior arts in this exercise – but by using the body and space as unique prisms, and dance as the initial view. 

Making a portrait of Kaori Ito based on stage methods was, for me, a process first and foremost. The set was not the initial idea. I decided on it after several weeks of rehearsals. For the early days, among other materials, I had a string puppet made in the image of Kaori Ito, a life-size and very realistic double. “Here is your dance teacher”, I told her. Kaori spent several hours observing it and following its movements to the letter. From this work I kept only the strings, using them throughout the entire space. The puppet remained in Kaori's body. 

From the strings I composed a tangible, living space, from which a metaphysical drama emerged, with strong links to Japan. I obviously did not want to create something 'Japanese', but Kaori comes with her own story and measures her distance from the country today. I didn't want to become distracted from this. Certain myths and recurrent motifs from Japan reappeared. On one hand was the idea of a link with ancestors and the dead. On another was the relationship with beauty that is connected to the shadows, elimination, disappearance. 'Plexus' starts from inside, from the body – this precise anatomical place, this network of nerves that is a vulnerable point – moving outside into space, a network of strings that echoes the etymology of the word plexus. 

Theatre therefore extends from the very interior, before life, to the very exterior after death, when the body disappears and becomes indistinct – where being and myth are reunited. I hoped that Kaori Ito's dance – which occasionally was so hampered by impossibility of dancing in that space that it became immobile – could give us access to this dialogue between the inner and outer world. 

After the premiere at the Théâtre Vidy-Lausanne, a journalist reminded me that Isadora Duncan had said that after the long periods of immobility she imposed upon herself, she would find that the central source of all movement was the plexus. “The solar plexus lifted the body up, towards the au-delà.” 

Source : Aurélien Bory, November 2013

After studies in physics, Aurélien Bory worked in the field of architectural acoustics before dedicating himself to theatre arts.
He has been the director of compagnie 111, located in Toulouse, since  2000 and he works with many collaborators. He develops physical theatre –  using space and the body – and creates multi-faceted works crossing  boundaries between various disciplines – circus, dance, music and visual  arts. From La trilogie sur l’espace (Space trilogy), and more specifically Plan B, famed for the collaboration with the New-Yorker Phil Soltanoff, to Je me souviens Le Ciel est loin la terre aussi (I remember Heaven is far away the Earth as well, 2019) created with Mladen Materic, not to mention Espæce (2016) shown at the 70th Avignon Festival or even aSH  (2018) created at the Montpellier Dance festival for the dancer  Shantala Shivaligappa, Compagnie 111 now has a repertoire of seventeen  shows, presented at large festivals and on the most prestigious  international stages. Aurélien Bory did the stage direction and  scenography for La disparition du paysage (The disappearance of the landscape),  a new text by Jean-Philippe Toussaint personified by Denis Podalydès  from autumn 2021 in Paris. In 2022, Aurélien Bory directed and  scenographied Dafne, opera-madrigal inspired by a work from  Heinrich Schütz, collaborating with the vocal group Les Cris de Paris –  Geoffroy Jourdain. The show is created at the Athénée Théâtre  Louis-Jouvet in Paris.
The remarkable care that Aurélien Bory takes over the scenography can also be seen in the sets he designs, which are often connected to a space, like in Spectacula produced in 2015 for the Théâtre  Graslin in Nantes, TROBO in 2019 for the Cité des Sciences et de  l’Industrie in Paris, and Garonne in 2020 for the Théâtre Garonne in  Toulouse.
Aurélien Bory also stages operas. Orpheus and Eurydice in 2018 and Parsifal in 2020 are some of his productions.

Source: Company 111 's website

More information : cie111.com

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