L'ogresse Des Archives Et Son Chien

L’ogresse des archives et son chien Creation 2010

au 08.04.14 L’Ogresse des archives et son chien

Audience: From 8 years

Running time: 1h15 / 1h (for the young audience)

Choreography and set design Christian and François Ben Aïm

Performance Peggy Grelat-Dupont, Waldemar Krechkowsky, Paolo Locci, Grégoire Puren, Pierre-Emmanuel Sorignet, Gill Viandier, François Ben Aïm, Mathilde Sternat (cello), Bruno Ferrier (vocal and percussions),

Music Jean-Baptiste Sabiani

Video Mélusine Thiry

Costumes Dulcie Best

Lights Laurent Patissier

General management Luc Béril

Light direction Laurent Patissier

Sound direction Sébastien Teulié

Actors film Eva Defouloy-Mosoni, Jean Ben Aïm, Christian Ben Aïm

Production: CFB 451

Coproductions: Théâtre de La Madeleine - scène conventionnée de Troyes, Espace Gérard Philipe de Saint-André-les- Vergers, Théâtre Paul Eluard - scène conventionnée de Bezons, Espace 1789 de Saint-Ouen, Théâtre Paul Eluard de Choisy- le-Roi, Le Théâtre – Scène Nationale de Mâcon, Atelier de Paris - Carolyn Carlson et CDC Paris Réseau centre de développe- ment chorégraphique (Atelier de Paris-Carolyn Carlson, L’étoile du nord, Micadanses-ADDP, studio Le regard du Cygne-AMD XXe), ARCADI – aide à la production et à la diffusion en Ile-de-France (2011-2012 et 2012-2013)

Accueil studio: Red Brick project CCN Roubaix Nord-Pas de Calais - Carolyn Carlson, CCN de Biarritz - Thierry Malandain, CCN de Créteil et du Val-de-Marne - Cie Kafig

Supports artistic project: ADAMI, Conseil Général du Val-de-Marne, CDC du Val-de-Marne pour la diffusion dans le 94, Spedidam (pour la diffusion en 2012), Conseil Régional de Champagne-Ardenne - ORCCA, Ville de Palaiseau

Choreographic residencies: Hostellerie de Pontempeyrat – association Regards et Mouvement artistic intentions

Louves, a beginning

The choreographic piece Louves created in October 2008 by Christian Ben Aïm gived the tone of this project. This short performance of 14 minutes is the beginning of the creation process for this piece, L’Ogresse des archives et son chien for its choreographic writing, for its construction and for its surrealistic atmosphere.

The universal tales have inspired Louves. It presents various imaginary feminine figures which are simultaneously precious, warriors and delicates. This metamorphosis takes place into a fantastic and playful world, between innocence and cruelty.

Press clipping

From the backgrounds, he charges on a tiny child bike, wrapped in a red cape and dragging a fur like a corpse. From the “Princess” (principal themes of this event) Christian Ben Aïm gives us a particularly view: those of a 3-4 years old “Little Red Riding Hood” who having a fit of anger, stealing his mum’s accessory (shoes to run away) and those of the woodcutter (the axe). With circus and theatre elements, the young choreographer is like a breath of fresh air to the New Theatre auditorium of Poitiers. He brings madness in a quite wise event. Good idea from Odile Azagury to get together 21 choreographers. Mathieu Braunstein - Danser © Arthur Péquin

Fear, violence and power

Christian et François Ben Aïm approach these themes considering that each of us develop a specific posture when confronted to fear, violence or power. As fear can be source of violence, violence a sign of power and power can be engendering fear; this triptych is representative of the dark side of our humanity. This subject, which has often been approached by literature and tales is recurrent in their artistic universe.

Throughout this piece, the choreographers continue their questioning on the representations of human condition. © Patrick Berger

Diversion of reality

Just like some stories and films directed by David Linch or Pedro Almodovar, Christian and François Ben Aïm introduce a superposition and a surrealistic organisation of the events in their choreography to build a world full of a strange beauty. Choreographers play with the notion of metamorphosis of the different figures they chose, swinging between dream and reality (a red riding hood, an oger, sleeping beauty among others).

All these magic characters are part of our imaginary world as well as part our collective memory.

Fantasy and sensuality

Louves experiments the field of desire and travesty through a soft and sensual body language. In this creation, the choreographers develop these themes by working on the performer’s physical presence on stage. An accent is put on a lascivious gestural vocabulary to let desire appear in the bend of a fantastic representation. They want to represent the pleasure around unusual elements, to surprise in a singular way.

the unusual

Some elements in the choreography are elaborated from attitudes and beha- viours out of proportion. In order to reach strangeness, the performer’s bodies are deconstructed. Then, they have soft and deformed gesture, with unusual rhythmic, monstrous curves and incongruous steps. To bring the unusual on the tray, the choreographers play on the various dimensions and on the proportions, make live together the infinitesimal and the enormous, multiply the figures. For example, they created a ballet composed of 7 red chaperons on small bicycles, flying around in circles, avoiding each other, creating a sensation of euphoria. © Estelle Brugerolles live music

For this piece Christian and François Ben Aïm continue working with musicians: a cellist and a percussionist will be on stage. This will to work in connection with music has already being realized in previous pieces like You’re a bird, now! and Louves.

The combination of dance and music around the theme of fantastic tales brings a new dynamic; the original musical compositions of the piece are created by Jean-Baptiste Sabiani, who have worked for the Resistance au droit and Valse en trois temps. Musicians, dancers and acrobats share the stage with complicity.

costumes

The costumes are designed and made by Dulcie Best. After meeting Christian and François Ben Aïm at an event for 35 artists which the 2 brothers choreographed, she designs and creates costumes for Louves. A particular attention is held on the theme of transformation. The costumes will participate in this strange universe mixing with surrealism and metamorphosis.

Dulcie Best designs costumes for large corporate an international events, such as the Paralympic Games in Athens (2004), the Toyota Pavilion in Japan (2005). Meanwhile she continues © Estelle Brugerolles her passion for theater, opera, puppetry, dance and much more.

videos

The play opens with a short film directed by Melusine Thiry, serving as prologue. The film presents a «realistic» framework, although mysterious, before the viewer is immersed in the fantasy world unveiled on stage.

This film features two characters living in a forest: a man (Christian Ben Aïm) and child (Eva-Defouloy Mosoni). Fate will bring together these two lonely and independent. As two characters from completely different worlds, they will approach one another. Crossing looks without seeing each other, a hazardous chase takes place, a tree collapses ... many events that reflect a disintegrating reality that is disintegrating, shattering realism and uncons- ciousness.

This film offers the premises of the immersion on stage, reveals the transition from reality to fantasy, and is the poetic world and unconscious inside manhood, which is elaborated on stage. creative initiatives

L’Ogresse des archives et son chien has the particularity to bring together disciplines (dance, circus, music, video). This creation is an opportunity to discover one of these disciplines.

For this piece, Christian and François Ben Aïm were inspired by the world of fairy tales. By invoking the characters that populate these stories, the choreographers worked on the idea of transformation, fascination and fear. The universe of stories, complex and abundant, is an inexhaustible theme which can be approached in a fun and relevant approach through writing, video, music or dance, both with children and adults.

Some examples of workshops :

-Choreography workshop around storytelling -Video Workshop - Workshop-around music -Meeting, discussion, sociological conferences (with Pierre-Emmanuel Sorignet, sociologist and dancer around his book Dancer christian and françois Ben Aïm

A company

The Ben Aïm brothers are all of this, and more: a fifteen-year partnership that has produced some twenty creations, strengthened by artistic collaborations from all backgrounds. Their story reads like a ploughed furrow, dug with the expertise of field workers liaising with performance spaces and communities. In the past three years, they have created some 350 shows that have helped them to establish an authentic company identity.

Two choreographer-dancers

After studying dance, physical theatre and circus skills, they each set out to © DR develop their performing careers independently in Canada and France. Once reunited, they laid the foundations for their company, which functions around the fraternal dynamic created by François and Christian: a meeting of minds and instincts, they continually bounce ideas off each other to produce artistic projects in constant evolution.

Standout pieces

In 1996, the brothers created their cornerstone piece: A l’abri du regard des hommes, avant d’aller mourir ailleurs, a hybrid performance in which dancers and actors share and feed off each other’s raw physical energy. La Frontera and Ne vous fiez pas au titre, il peut encore changer followed in the same vein, showca- sing a style of dance that blends subtle humour with elements of surprise. Other

© DR signature pieces include the diptych inspired by the work of Bernard-Marie Koltès, Carcasses, un œil pour deux and En plein cœur, whose original scenography and music resonate with the playwright’s texts. Among their latest productions, L’Ogresse des archives et son chien plays fully on the intersection of different disciplines, while Valse en trois temps flirts with minimalism. The brothers have also created in situ works on location, such as the monumental Mangrove Groove in China, and the ‘all-terrain’ piece Karma performed throughout the Pas-de- Calais region.

Partner venues

This path has been possible thanks to the loyal support of numerous performance spaces, including municipal theatres (the Théâtre de Vanves, Théâtre Louis Aragon de Tremblay-en-France, and the Théâtre de la Madeleine de Troyes, with whom they partnered for six years), national theatres (Mâcon, Aubusson), Centres Chorégraphiques Nationaux (Roubaix, Orléans, Créteil), and L’Espace 1789 in Saint-Ouen.

The company’s development is characterised by open-mindedness, exemplified by intimate solos that open up towards large-scale pieces, a physical style of writing that engages with cross-disciplinary art forms, and connections that lead to partnerships both within their local communities and abroad. It is also characterised by passion, which is always reignited when they push artistic and geographic boundaries. Background

1997 A l’abri du regard des hommes, avant d’aller mourir ailleurs (first creation) - 5 performers / Festival Avignon Off 1998 1998 L’Homme Rapaillé - 5 performers 1999 Un homme en marche - 5 performers / Festival Avignon Off 2001 2000 Creation dof the company CFB 451 2001 La Frontera - 5 performers Ô mon frère ! - 3 performers / Festival Avignon Off 2011 2003 Ne vous fiez pas au titre, il peut encore changer – 3 performers 2004 Carcasses, un œil pour deux - 2 performers 2004-2006 Residency at Micadanses / Paris 2006 En plein cœur - 9 performers Les quatres saisons de l’amour - 35 perfomers / Gala dinner for Amway – China 2006-2009 Residency of 3 years at the Théâtre de La Madeleine scène conventionée de Troyes 2007 You’re a bird, now ! - Solo 2007-2008 Residency Territoire(s) de la danse au Théâtre Louis Aragon – Tremblay-en-France 2008 Louves - Solo Amor Fati Fati Amor - 6 performers 2009-2012 Artistes associés au théâtre de La Madeleine - Scène conventionnée de Troyes, avec l’aide de la Région Champagne-Ardenne 2010 Valse en trois temps - 4 performers / Festival Avignon Off 2011 Résistance au droit - 4 performers 2011-2012 Residency at l’Espace 1789 de Saint-Ouen 2011 L’Ogresse des archives et son chien - 9 performers (dancers, musicians and artists circus) Mangrove groove, China - 50 performers / Publicis Event - Shenzhen, Chine. 2012 L’orée des visages (short form) - 4 performers / Collaboration with the company Pseudonymo 2013 Karma - 3 performers / Commissioned by the CCN de Roubaix - Carolyn Carlson La forêt ébouriffée - 2 performers / Création jfor young audience (from 7 years) L’orée des visages (long form) - 4 performers/ Collaboration with the company Pseudonymo biographies

performance: Peggy Grelat-Dupont - dancer Peggy Grelat-Dupont trained at the Opéra de Paris dance school before entering the Opéra de Paris ballet corps, where she remained for seven years. She then moved to Germany, where she danced with the Ballet Frankfurt for five years under the direction of William Forsythe. Back in France, she worked with Edouard Lock, the Opéra de Lyon with Christian Rizzo, Rachid Ouramdam, Sara Mitchel- son, and Pierre Droulers, before joining Maguy Marin’s team at the Centre Chorégraphique National (CCN) of Rillieux-la-Pape. She remained there for three years, collaborating on all of their workshops and special events. More recently, she has worked with Boris Charmatz on three of his creations, and performed in Sacre du Printemps by Sasha Waltz.

performance: Waldemar Krechkowsky - dancer Waldemar Kretchkowsky studied choreography at a vocational college of arts and culture in Ukraine, where his education introduced him to new forms of aesthetic expression. He later formed his own company and developed his creative ideas through various productions. He then left his country for France, where he joined the E.X.E.R.C.E. training programme at the Centre Chorégraphique National (CCN) of Montpellier (2001–2002). Since then he has pursued a double career as a dancer (with Michelle Murray, Florence Saul, Fiorenza Menini, Luc Maubon, Emmanuelle Vo-Dinh, Gilles Verièpe, Rita Cioffi and Eva Klimackova) and choreographer-performer.

performance: Paolo Locci - dancer, circus artist Paolo Locci honed his circus skills at the FLIC circus school in Turin and the Ecole Supérieure des Arts du Cirque in Brussels, specialising in Chinese pole and hand-to-hand acrobatics. Back in Turin, he retur- ned to the FLIC circus school as a teacher (Chinese pole), running workshops for professionals and amateurs. In 2009 he formed his own company, Ibonobi, while continuing to perform with several circuses and street theatre companies.

performance: Grégoire Puren - dancer, circus artist The son of an actor, Grégoire Puren started performing for audiences from a very early age, and followed a complementary path by entering the Annie Fratellini circus school followed by Le Samovar theatre school in Paris. His early projects culminated in street theatre and company productions, in which he applied his multidisciplinary training in commedia dell’arte, clowning, acrobatics, Chinese pole and physical theatre, collaborating with Claire Heggen, Amy Atthab, Pina Blankevort, Franck Dinet, and the Malabar, Rasposo and Les Sangles companies. Since then he has continued to explore contemporary forms of artistic expression and the world of choreography by regularly attending workshops and courses with Catherine Dubois, Jordi Vidal and Jackie Taffanel, among others.

performance: Pierre-Emmanuel Sorignet - dancer The sociologist, dancer and choreographer Pierre-Emmanuel Sorignet is a research associate in the social sciences laboratory of the Ecole Normale Supérieure and a senior lecturer and researcher at the University of Lausanne. His sociological work focuses primarily on the dance profession, and he has written numerous articles on the subject. A summary of his work was published in 2010 in a book entitled Danser, enquête dans les coulisses d’une vocation, published by La Découverte. He began his performing career in 1993 with Philippe Glass, in a dance piece choreographed by Birgitta Trommler (in Germany), later working with the company Silenda. From 2006 to 2010 he danced with the Centre Chorégraphique National (CCN) of Caen Fattoumi-Lamoureux. He started working with the Christian et François Ben Aïm company in 1999, when he reprised a role in Un homme en marche (1999), and has since collaborated on En plein cœur (2006). In 2013 he choreographed his own creation Un camion dans la tête. interprétation : Gill Viandier- dancer After graduating with a degree in architecture in 1997, Gill Viandier decided to explore the world of contemporary dance, training mainly at the Centre Chorégraphique National (CCN) of Rennes with Catherine Di- verrès, and at the CCN of Montpellier with Mathilde Monnier. In 1999 he joined Jackie Taffanel’s company, and since 2003 he has worked with the companies of Michèle Murray, Didier Théron, Hélène Cathala, Em- manuelle Vo-Dinh, Georges Appaix, Christophe Haleb and Philippe Saire. Gill Viandier is also interested in visual art and set design. He made his first theatre set design in 2007, and created public space performance installations with the site-specific project #Number#. As a musician, he has participated in lyrical and improvised projects in Denis Tricot’s L’Orgue de bois. In 2009 he moved to Berlin, where he has worked with Willi Dorner, William Forsythe and Christoph Winkler, along with Hans Tuerlings in the Netherlands.

Interprétation : Bruno Ferrier - singer Bruno Ferrier is a percussionist, multi-instrumentalist and singer who initially trained as a drummer and percussionist, studying modern drumming, traditional tabla drumming with the Indian master Rashmi Bhatt, and African percussion in workshops run by Mama Kouyaté. In 1998 he entered the Pro Musica college and took a two-year course in classical singing and in polyphonic singing. Following jos training, Bruno Ferrier has worked across a diverse range of disciplines. From 1991 to 2008 he sang on numerous albums, and toured as a singer with world jazz, rock and Asian music groups: the Boogie Night Orches- tra, Speed Caravan, Pososhok. He also contributed astonishing improvised vocals to the album Ping Kong by the group DuOud, accompanied by the oud, a traditional Arabian lute.

performance: Mathilde Sternat - cellist After winning First Prize in cello and chamber music at the Conservatoire de Paris (CNSMDP), Mathilde Sternat completed her studies by taking an advanced course in chamber music. She was invited to join the Orchestre Symphonique de Montpellier and the Concerts Pasdeloup in Paris as a solo cellist, and has played in numerous concerts with the Salzburg chamber orchestra. An eclectic musician, she has also performed with popular singers and entertainers (including Bruel, Elodie Frégé, Nolwen Leroy and Voulzy), both in their live shows and on their albums. In 2004 Mathilde Sternat and Anne Gravoin founded the Travelling Quartet, a group of classically trained musicians who revisit the Beatles’ reper- toire of hits. music: Jean-Baptiste Sabiani Jean-Baptiste Sabiani studied at the Centre d’Information Musicale (CIM) before following a five-year programme at the American School of Modern Music from 1990 to 1995, specialising in piano. During his career he has written, recorded and arranged compositions in the fields of jazz, theatre and film. Since 2010, he has composed and/or arranged the musical scores for all of the productions written by Christian and François Ben Aïm: Résistance au droit (2010), Valse en trois temps (2010), L’ogresse des archives et son chien (2011), Karma (2013), and La forêt ébouriffée (2013).

lights: Laurent Patissier After an eclectic early career in special events and television, followed by 15 years in the lighting industry (working on shows, national and international tours), Laurent Patissier decided to focus on lighting design for the performing arts. He has worked as a lighting designer on theatre productions, dance performances, puppet shows, music concerts and exhibitions, and has collaborated with a roll-call of performing artists and companies. He recently designed the lighting for the contemporary dance pieces Rock ’n’ Roll Suicide by Die Donau (Andréa Sitter) and Il Progetto Indispensabile by La Ventura company (Ana Ventura); the Hip Hop dance duo Phorm (David Colas and Santiago); the play La Permanence des Choses, un Essai sur l’Inquiétude by the Association Perspective Nevski (Sandrine Roche); and the puppet show Avis de Messe Marionettique by the Contre Ciel company (Luc Laporte). Laurent Patissier first worked with the Christian et François Ben Aïm company in 1998 on L’homme rapaillé, and since 2004 has designed the lighting for all of their pieces.

costumes : Dulcie Best A graduate of the Welsh College of Music and Drama, Dulcie Best has been a professional costume designer and visual artist since 1990. She has designed the costumes for international events such as the opening ceremony of the Euro 2008 football championship and the 2004 Paralympic Games in Athens. In addition to these major productions, she pursues her creative passion by working in the performing arts. She first met Christian and François Ben Aïm in 2006 at a choreographic event featuring 35 artists, and has since designed and made the costumes for a number of their pieces: Louves (2008), L’ogresse des archives et son chien (2011) and La forêt ébouriffée (2013). CONTACTS

CFB 451 53 Rue du Général Leclerc 94270 Le Kremlin-Bicêtre - France + 33 (0)1 43 60 76 11 www.cfbenaim.com

Ambre Takei Administrative manager [email protected]

Marion Gatier Production and tour manager [email protected]

Fanny Debray In charge of communication and public relations [email protected]

The company is generously supported by la Direction régionale des affaires culturelles d’Île-de-France – Ministère de la Culture et de la Communication, au titre de l’aide à la compagnie chorégraphique conventionnée, la Région Île-de-France au titre de la Permanence Artistique et Culturelle et de l’Emploi-tremplin, le Conseil Général du Val-de-Marne au titre de l’aide au fonctionnement. The company is currently in residence at the Théâtre de Rungis.