The 4000 Blows

The 4000 Blows is the story of X. Fascinated by Duska, he began, without ever having danced before, to study Boléro, the solo written by Maurice Béjart for the ballerina. Don’t look for an actual story here. Nothing but facts are true. The 4000 Blows

It’s been months since I’ve been working on learning Bolero, choreography by Maurice Béjart. This learning process marks the pace of my everyday life and takes up my living space. It is an ongoing and solitary process. This routine has now become a challenge for intimate research in the writing of an artist’s film: The 4000 Blows.

The 4000 Blows represent the experience of a man. Fascinated by the image of Duška Sifnios and his performance of Bolero, he imagines learning the whole choreography without having danced in his life. A story emerges between reality and self-fiction and ends with a long dance scene: the whole of Bolero. Images of life and dance blend with words by Jean Guizerix and music by Sébastien De Gennaro.

The 4000 Blows presents three different perspectives lead by Jean Guizerix, principal dancer at the , Sebastiano De Gennaro, an Italian composer and percussionist, and Frédéric Liver, a French-Italian visual artist, non-dance performer, and completely self-taught in his relationship with Béjart's choreography.

Three perspectives on the piece based on their confrontation with Béjart’s Bolero: to reflect and express themselves in their relationship to this work, to question their personal appropriation of choreography and music, their status, their legitimacy or not to play it, their interpretative ways... From technical considerations to more sensitive issues, all these reflections sometimes give meaning and sometimes lead to abstraction through its poetic images, its scenes of daily life, its dance, its interviews.

Frédéric Liver

Jean Guizerix

Jean Guizerix is a French dancer and choreographer. Born in Paris in 1945, Guizerix is described as "tall and muscular, with a brooding Basque face". He studied dance privately before he joined the (1964). He was nominated étoile (star) eight years later. His wife, Wilfride Piollet, is also a former étoile of the Paris Opera Ballet. They created their own company in 1980. His awards include the laureate of French Grand Prix de la Danse (1984) as well as chevalier of the Order for Merits (1989). In 1994, he premiered at the Aix Danse Festival ″Les sept dernières paroles du Christ″ (The seven last words of the Christ) by Joseph Haydn, choreographed by Christine Bastin, Mark Tompkins, Michel Kelemenis, Dominique Boivin, François Raffinot, François Verret, Andy Degroat, and Daniel Larrieu. Frédéric Xavier Liver

Frédéric Xavier Liver, French-Italian visual artist He graduated from the Accademia di Belle Arti in Milan in 2005 and since 2012 is member of the collective E IL TOPO (Milan). His works are presented in Paris by the galleries Nivet Carzon, Estace and Les Salaisons, in Naples by the Annarumma gallery, in Brussels by the Dubois-Friedland gallery, in Bucharest by the Galateca gallery. His personal work and his collaborations with the collective E IL TOPO have been exhibited at Gamec (Bergamo, 2011), La Fabbrica del Vapore (Milano, 2012), Cneai (Paris, 2013), FRAC Bretagne (Rennes, 2014), EBiennale (Bucharest, 2015), Primary (Nottingham, 2016), Clark Center (Montreal, 2016), 19 - CRAC (Montbéliard, 2017) and Reims Scène d'Europe (with FRAC Champagne-Ardenne) 2019 Sebastiano De Gennaro

As a multi-percussionist, foley, peculiar drummer, self taught composer, De Gennaro started his career as a drummer playing diverse genres of music from progressive to hardcore punk. In 2000 he was accepted to the Giuseppe Verdi music conservatory in Milan where he graduated in percussion with Maurizio Ben Omar. He furthered his studies with Dutch percussionists of the Royal Concertgebouw at the music conservatory in Amsterdam. After earning his degree he dedicated himself to finding his own style. Vibraphone, Marimba, Xylophone, old tambourines, infant toys, recycled objects, and battery powered tools are part of his repertoire. In 2009 he recorded with the National Symphonic Orchestra of Rai Aion led by Giacinto Scelsi (Stradivarius). In contemporary music he has collaborated with Francesco Dillon, Terry Riley, Sandro Mussida, ADM Ensemble. His first soloist album Hippos Epos (Parade) came out in 2011, followed by his 2013 release of 19’40” on Cage (Parade). In 2013 the magazine Mucchio Selvaggio published a lengthy interview defending De Gennaro as the “most sought-after and admired Italian percussionist.” He is one of the founding members of the ensemble Esecutori di Metallo su Carta. In 2015 released with MeMe his second soloist album All My Robots, the fist one of original composition. In 2016 he played In C with Terry Riley. He is the founder, with E. Gabrielli and F. Fusaro, of 19’40” LTD a subscription-based recording series. In 2017 released with 19’40″ his fourth soloist album, Il Picchio, contemporary music for percussion and electronic. In 2018 released with 19’40″ his fifth soloist album: Discovering the electronic music of Chino Goia Sornisi.