Gush is Great, by de l’impertinence. Photo © Nora Houguenade

review, article

Danse Élargie 2024

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Gush is Great, by de l’impertinence. Photo © Nora Houguenade
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Robin Lamothe digests 20 shows in a day at the biennale competition for new choreography – so that you don’t have to

On the weekend of 15–16 June 2024, the biennial Danse Élargie choreographic competition finally returned to the Théâtre de la Ville in Paris, after years of renovation work. The competition began a month before with almost 400 applications, 20 of which were selected by the competition partners: Théâtre de la Ville, Boris Charmatz’s company Terrain, Fondation d’entreprise Hermès, Cndc – Angers, directed by Noé Soulier, and La Comédie de Valence, CDN Drôme-Ardèche, directed by Marc Lainé.

The rules of the game? Simple: at least 3 dancers on stage, 10 minutes on the clock, with 10 French and 10 international choreographers, to keep everyone happy.

The programme presented a kaleidoscope of artistic forms: happenings, extracts from creations, condensed versions or works-in-progress.

The winners were chosen after a rigorous selection process by a panel of eminent artists, talented young dancers, experienced theatre technicians and a panel representing the Society of Dramatic Authors and Composers. This process, conducted in a tumultuous French social and political climate, proved to be an ingenious platform for giving a voice to civil society. However, there is a certain irony: in this feast of cultural consumption, where twenty shows are gobbled up to retain only ten, then three, artistic digestion is guaranteed, but the final selection is bound to cause surprises and controversy.

Between you and me, let me share a confidence: nothing touches me more deeply than when choreographic art explores our world by dealing with subjects that resonate with us, themes with which we can all identify. With this in mind, allow me to present my four personal favourites, creations that have captivated me – and audiences – with their boldness and commitment.

My first prize: Tous les Français by Compagnie Arborescence, directed by Simon Roth. Imagine forty or so everyday superheroes from civil society, aged 5 to 78, who take to the stage. The mission of this choral piece? To transform political speeches into a crazy samba. Excerpts from interviews and speeches become a soundtrack where they react in a totally zany and refreshing way. Their offbeat gestures neutralise the heaviness of the speeches, like an antidote to the anxiety-inducing climate. These men and women, united in a collective choreography, remind us of what’s essential: bringing laughter and smiles back into our collective imagination. It’s hilarious, vibrant and necessary. No cash prize, but a huge vote of appreciation for this bold stand.

My second prize: A Very Eye by Belgian company Tumbleweed, performed by Angela Rabaglio and Micaël Florentz. This is choreographic magic at its purest: a unique concept that stretches out over time with hypnotic elegance. Imagine six performers knitting the space together, meeting, embracing, pushing each other away, and doing it again and again. Like a danced version of Groundhog Day, but much more poetic. All these patterns of repeated embrace take us back to the essence of the human encounter, reminding us how much we are social animals. This performance makes you want to see the full version, without pause or fast-forward.

My third prize: Gush is Great by artistic and cultural collective De l’impertinence unveils a tight formation of five performers from the same generation, lined up like modern warriors in search of meaning. Then, with total surprise and pure magic, they embark on a slow-motion journey, from the back of the stage to us in our seats, to a relaxing soundtrack of waves.

And then it’s time to unpack: from trouser pockets, bras and mouths, fetishes of our age overloaded with doubts and anxieties burst forth. A book, a newspaper, a beer can, a cigarette, a mobile phone, a plastic bag, a board game, a flower pot… you name it! These objects, symbols of our social, environmental and political dysfunction, are thrown around casually, as if to say ‘basta!’ The show is a bitingly ironic reminder that the responsibility for building a better world lies with all of us, individually. Gush is Great also won the second prize in the competition.

My fourth-equal prize: Beste Cantate by Juliette Chevalier of Compagnie La Drache, and L’Heure du Thé by Rebecca Journo of La Pieuvre. These two creations brilliantly integrate the dramaturgical and scenographic dimensions, and deserve a special mention.


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Beste Cantate, by Juliette Chevalier. Photo © Simon Dardenne
Beste Cantate, by Juliette Chevalier. Photo © Simon Dardenne

Beste Cantate plunges us into the heart of a colourful and glittering clown tribe, a bit like Maguy Marin’s May B on acid. Imagine a crazy carnival where each member, with his or her own personal impulses, joyfully sabotages any attempt at unity. It’s a real circus, hilarious and chaotic. So delirious that time flies too fast to really unfold its dramatic richness. A word of advice? Look out for the long version, it promises to be a festival of madness!

Rebecca Journo in L'heure du thé. Photo © Nora Houguenade
Rebecca Journo in L’heure du thé. Photo © Nora Houguenade

L’Heure du Thé opens with a minimalist but highly theatrical set: a half-open curtain, a solitary chair in the centre and four others at centre stage. The performers emerge like characters from a Tim Burton film, frozen in a score of fragmented bodies, like animated mannequins from an old film found at a garage sale. The cinematic music reinforces this strange and fascinating atmosphere. Their presence, their make-up and their black humour leave you both uncomfortable and captivated. It’s hardly surprising that the play won a prize from the college representing the Society of Dramatic Authors and Composers.


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An unconscious sign of my dislike for these two works? Probably

Blue Quote Mark

At this point in the writing process, a schism opens up in me, like a yawning chasm of perplexity, because it’s my turn to talk about the submissions that won third and first prize in this competition. And then, bang, the blank-page syndrome hit me, like a spell cast by a thwarted muse. An unconscious sign of my dislike for these two works? Probably. So explaining why is both a duty and a liberation.

Annabelle Dvir’s Fictions, which won third prize, imagines a rock concert in traditional dress, attempting to navigate the tumultuous waters of a cyclothymic dramaturgy to represent the perdition of a mind between reality and hallucinations. The piece exudes a certain physicality, but alas, even the most dynamic movements can’t save a humour that falls flat and an overplayed theatricality. It’s a bit like attending a festival of grimaces in the hope of finding some Shakespeare: you end up sucked in, exhausted, drained of your last strength.

Finally, Mounia Nassangar’s creation S.T.U.C.K, which won first prize in the Danse Élargie competition, offers us a technical demonstration of waacking… and that’s about it. An energetic frontal choreography from which nothing escapes. It’s abysmally empty. So yes, it’s still effective in a competition because the dance technique is impressive to watch – but this is a choreography competition, and we don’t see any of the components of a real choreographic work. Instead, there is an overwhelmingly simple theme, a non-existent spatial and dramaturgical composition and a movement style that never seems to stray from waacking codes. In short, it’s cool and bankable for 10 minutes, but I can’t see it expanded to a traditional show format.


Blue Quote Mark

The cultural field seems to be a veritable game of musical chairs, with everyone trying to keep their balance while advancing their pawns

Blue Quote Mark

In any competition, there are always grey areas, doubts and questions, like so many balloons floating in the air. That Saïdo Lehlouh, co-director of the Centre Chorégraphique de Rennes et de Bretagne, coordinator of this 2024 edition and executive producer of Mounia Nassangar’s creation, is part of the final jury is obvious, but does this compromise his impartiality and therefore the outcome of the competition?

At the awards ceremony, the speeches could easily have touched on current French politics, but they did not. And what about the presence of an Israeli artist on the podium, in the midst of a genocidal war in Gaza? Everyone seemed to ignore the issue, which made it seem like the elephant in the room. Can the French cultural field look its contradictions in the face and try to assert a public voice? A question to ponder.

The cultural field, with its intertwining of interests, seems to be a veritable game of musical chairs, with everyone trying to keep their balance while advancing their pawns. What is the real purpose of these practices? How can we reinvent ourselves and restore clarity to our institutions and professional practices?

These are the questions that keep nagging at me.

In conclusion: I digress!

So there you have the 2024 edition of Danse Élargie. 


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15–16.06.2024, Théâtre de la Ville, Paris, France
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For the full list of entrants and awards for Danse Élargie 2024, see www.danse-elargie.com/en

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