May 2001 BAMcinematek 2001 Spring Season 651 ARTS Brooklyn Philharmonic Orchestra

BAM Spring Season sponsor:

PH il iP M ORRIS ~lAG(8Ill COMPANIES INC. Contents • May 2001 The Beat Goes On 8 DanceAfrica returns to BAM, under the ebullient vision and supervision of Chuck Davis. A photo gallery. Cries and Whispers 18 Renowned director Ingmar Bergman directs a haunting production of Strinberg's The Ghost Sonata , which comes to BAM next month . By Stan Schwartz Judson Joy 22 Mikhail Baryshnikov's White Oak Dance Project soars with Judson Church's postmodern legacy. By Susan Yung Program 25 Upcoming Events 47

BAMdirectory 5 1 The Ghost Sonata Photo by Bengt Wanselius B1\ 1\/1 Co\/or 1\ rtict

Andres Serrano was born in New York City in 1950 and studied art at the Brooklyn Museum Art School from 1967 to 1969. His artworks have been exhibited in galleries and institutions around the world. He has had numerous one-person exhibitions, including "Body and Soul," a traveling exhibition seen in Norway, Germany, and England, and mid-career retrospectives at The Institute of Contemporary Art/Philadelphia and the Groninger MuseumfThe Netherlands. His photographs have been included in many group shows, with recent exhibitions at the Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, Ridgefield, Connecticut; New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York City; the Serpentine Art Gallery, London; and the Victoria & Albert Museum, London. He is represented by Paula Cooper Gallery, New York City.

Andres Serrano BAM Photography Portfolio Hooded Warbler II, The Andres Serrano image on the cover is from BAM 's new Photography 2000 Portfolio. The portfolio features 11 images donated to BAM by Richard 20" x 24" Avedon , Adam Fuss, Ralph Gibson, Nan Goldin, Timothy Greenfield-Sanders, Courtesy Paula Cooper Annie Leibovitz, Jack Pierson , Richard Prince, Andres Serrano, Cindy Gallery, New York Sherman, and William Wegman. All prints are 20 x 24 inches, signed and For BAMart informa­ numbered in an edition of 40. They will be delivered to buyers in custom­ tion, contact Deborah made linen portfolio boxes designed especially for BAM by John Cheim. The Bowie at pre-publication initial offering is $15,000 + tax and shipping. The portfolio is 718.636.4138 published by Serge Sorokko Gallery of New York and San Francisco. 4 If you're in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, this Memorial Day weekend and suddenly feel as if you've traveled to Africa, don't be surprised- it's BAM's annual DanceAfrica festival. >

Chuck Davis (above) Photo by Dan Rest Ndere Troupe of Uganda (right)

8 Ndere Troupe of Uganda BAM buzzes with activity in DanceAfrica, a weekend-long celebration of African/ African-American dance and culture. Now in its 24th year, DanceAfrica has grown into the country's largest celebration of African dance. Chuck Davis and DanceAfrica were recently cited on a list of "America's Irre­ placeable Dance Treasures: the First 100." Respect for tradition and ancestry is present throughout, from the opening libation cere­ mony to the honor shown to the Council of Elders by the younger generations.

Performing in DanceAfrica 2001 in BAM 's Howard Gilman Opera House are the Ndere Troupe from Uganda, Sabar Ak Ru Afriq, Forces of Nature, and the BAM Restora­ tion/DanceAfrica Ensemble. Ndere brings Uganda's traditional, glorious spectacle of dance, drumming, and music. Many of the dances emanate from rituals and celebra-

Ndere Troupe of Uganda

10 tions, such as hunting, courtship, and the second work with the Jahrama Ndiaye En­ honoring of the king. Sabar Ak Ru Afriq will semble of drums. Forces of Nature offers a present Revival , featuring its own unique dynamic blend of traditional movement with style of allegorical dance, and will perform a breathtaking contemporary theatrical ele-

The Sabar Ak Ru Afriq company

14 The Sabar Ak Ru Afriq company ments. Always a crowd favorite , the youth­ fully exuberant BAM Restoration! DanceAfrica Ensemble will interact with dancers from Ndere in special dances for females and males.

Outside, the DanceAfrica Bazaar bustles with the commerce of carved artworks, daz­ zling dashikis, and freshly sliced coconut and sugar cane. To round out the festival , BAMcinematek at BAM Rose Cinemas will offer a selection of related films, including the highly acclaimed Faat-Kine (Senegal) by Ousmane Sembene. BAMcafe Live will present live music as part of the festival. True to its recently earned title, OanceAfrica is an irreplaceable dance treasure and a joyous celebration of all facets of African culture .- Susan Yung

Forces of Nature

16 The Royal Dramatic Thea tre of August Strindberg may be best known in Amer­ ica for such angst-ridden dramas of searing psy­ Sweden brings August Strindberg's chological real ism as Miss Julie and The Father, The Ghost Sonata to BAM under but essentia l to the great Swedish playwright's output are his later dream plays. These are the distinguished direction of film evocative, symbolist fantasies shot through with and theater dynamo Ingmar Buddhist touches. At the same time these dream plays reflect Strindberg's growing interest in the Bergman. By Stan Schwartz 18th-century Swedish theologian Emanuel Swe­ denborg and his notions of spiritual correspon­ dence. Strindberg's works in this category include the epic three-part To Damascus as well as the aptly titled and equally epic A Dream Play. On a far more compact scale, there is The Ghost Sonata, one of Strindberg's so-called late "chamber plays" written in 1907 for his own Intimate Theatre . With striking economy of lan­ guage and its startling mix of lyricism and grotes­ querie, The Ghost Sonata reveals Strindberg as a true master of the dream play idiom.

Dream plays are very tricky things-to write, of course, but perhaps even more so to direct. How Bergman (left) at work Photo by Bengt Wa nsellius do you stage events in a credible way when logi-

18 cal cause-and-effect and psychological realism are jettisoned, or at least, substantially blurred? How do you maintain dramatic tension if much of the proceedings seems dreamily inexplicable? Enter Ingmar Bergman, arguably as much a leg­ end, at this point, as Strindberg himself. Of course, Bergman is known to all as one of the great film directors. But for more than five decades, he's also shown himself to be a master conjurer of theater magic, principa lly at Stock­ holm's Royal Dramatic Theatre (known as Dra­ maten) , where his most recent production, Schiller's Mary Stuart, has been playing to packed houses since its premiere last December.

There's no disputing that these two towering fig­ ures in Swed ish cultura l history are closely linked. The influence of Strindberg on Bergman's film work is formidable and, conversely, one can­ not overstate Bergman's particular affinity for Strindberg's plays, not just the real istic plays with their fierce psychological warfare, but also for the otherworld Ii ness of the dream plays. After all, what is a dream if not the idiosyncratic pre- The Ghost Sonata Photo by Bengt Wanselius sentation of pure, concentrated feelings expressed through a peculiar constellation of pure, concentrated imagery? And what better way to describe the entire Bergman oeuvre?

Over the years, Bergman has staged many Strindberg plays at Dramaten, and it's significant that the current production of The Ghost Sonata marks the director's fourth inquiry into its mys­ teries. Bergman has a habit of continually retum­ ing to the same play, but it would be wrong to characterize this as an instance of someone "try­ ing to get it right." Rather, it's the mark of a mas­ ter interpreter who feels compelled to continually explore further. Bergman first staged The Ghost Sonata in 1941 as an amateur production, with understandably problematic results (the director was 23), but version number three , at Dramaten in 1973, was ground breaking in its treatment of the play's difficult final scene. The current pro­ duction further crystallizes Bergman's interpreta­ tion of Strindberg's enigmatic text into one seamless, haunting vision.

On paper, The Ghost Sonata sounds fairly sim­ ple, if strange. In the first of its three scenes- The Ghost Sonata Photo by Bengt Wanselius

19 Mummy-wife, who emerges from her closet, clucking like a parrot.

Meanwhile, the Student is falling in love with the beautiful young Girl who mayor may not be the Colonel's daughter. In the play's last and most troubling and mystical scene, set in the so-called Hyacinth Room, the Student, now irreversibly poisoned by the household's menacing air, con­ fronts the Girl and reveals her as the horribly scarred and diseased creature she really is. The truth proves too much for her to bea r.

That's the story. The challenge is to transform it into a coherent dream-vision- in the heightened, quasi-mystical sense of the term. The process seems to come remarkably easy for Bergman, himself a Sunday Child (a detail of fundamental importance to such films as Fanny and Alexan­ der and Sunday's Children). The director under­ stands that achieving a convincing dream-state onstage has nothing to do with hokey effects and everything to do with mining the play's relentless inner logic and filling it out with an emotionally charged hyperrealism . To further the effect, Bergman employs a deliberate and elegant cho­ reography to underscore the play's musicality.

All the while, the director punctuates the pro­ ceedings with small , salient details not spelled out by Strindberg but logically extrapolated from his world: a maid emptying a pail of steamy excrement, Hummel's hand bleeding from advanced psoriasis (Strindberg suffered from The Ghost Sonata Photo by Bengt Wa nselius the same), that same hand leaving a trace of "movements," if you like-the young Student blood as it caresses a white marble statue of a meets up with the sinister, wheelchair-bound old beautiful woman. Each of these small moments man Hummel outside a house in Stockholm's has the shocking impact of a sudden, unex­ fashionable bstermalm district. The Student is pected film close-up. Taken together, Bergman's now revealed to be a Sunday Child (according to strategies conspire to create a most particular Swedish folklore, a child born on a Sunday has and peculiar tonality best described as lyricism visionary powers, and this Student is no excep­ infused with grotesquerie and a certain amount tion), which intrigues Hummel. The old man of macabre humor. The tone is perfectly suited contrives a plan by which they will both end up to Strindberg's twilight-zone vision of Swedish invited to dinner later that night within the odd upper-middle-class respectability at the turn of house, which Hummel explains is presided over the century: a sad bunch of morally and spiritu­ by the Colonel. Scene two comprises the famous ally bankrupt ghosts doomed to fester in their "ghost supper" in which Hummel mercilessly exposed lies, and die. exposes the past crimes and false identity of the Colonel. This leads to Hummel's own fatal "Although it ends very tragically, I think it's a good comeuppance at the hands of the Colonel's thing, in a way," says Jonas Malmjso. Malmjso

20 plays the Student (and in a striking casting coup, encounter some years back with the ghost of the role of Hummel is played by Swedish stage Strindberg. Upon hearing this anecdote, Malmjs6 veteran Jan Malmjs6, the young actor's real-life laughs. "Well, you never know with Erland! But father). "If you have deep dark secrets that are hey, I don't know! No one would be happier than just eating away at you," the actor continues, me if it was true . I like the idea of ghosts, that we "there can be some kind of salvation in meeting don't just disappear when it's allover." someone who unlocks whatever it is and forces you to confront your fears." In Bergman's hands, Strindberg's ghosts couldn't be more alive and palpable. But what about all those scarred, deformed ghosts? I recall a conversation I had a year ago with Erland Ghost Sonata will be presented at BAM Harvey Josephson, chatting quietly in the Dramaten green Theater, June 20-24. room (Josephson originally played in this produc­ tion but, regrettably, could not join the New York Stan Schwartz is a freelance critic who has writ­ tour due to recent back surgery). The famed ten about theater and film for the New York Bergman actor had told me quite emphatically that Times, Time Out New York, Filmmaker Maga­ Dramaten was haunted- he'd had a personal zine, and Film Comment Magazine.

The Ghost Sonata Photo by Bengt Wanselius

21 Mikhail Baryshnikov, artistic White Oak Dance Project, now in its 11th sea­ son, was founded in order to commission and director of the White Oak Dance perform new and existing modern dance works Project, focuses on the legacy of by eminent and emerging American choreogra­ phers. White Oak's 2000 spring season at BAM the Judson Church movement at included works by Judson alums Trisha Brown BAM, June 5-9. By Susan Yung and Yvonne Rainer in addition to more recently established choreographers. For PASTForward, the company's ambitious current project, Mikhail Baryshnikov and White Oak have restaged selected works from the annals of the Judson Church movement while commissioning new pieces by some of its seminal artists. Barysh­ nikov may seem an unlikely advocate for Jud­ son. He was born in Russia and already has a secure spot in ballet's pantheon of all-time Mikhail Baryshnikov with the White Oak Dance project greats, yet has chosen to focus on this very Photo by Stephanie Berger American, anti-balletic work.

22 The Judson movement began in 1962 and tech­ son Dance Theater is of a kind of classicism-a nically lasted just four years. However, its influ­ nobility of primary movement and sounds." The ence has conti nued to seep into the soi I of fourth wall was disregarded (or not artificially re­ contemporary dance, still nourishing the roots constructed); props were not so much designed as and branches of a now giant tree. PASTForward dug out of the closet. Movement and performance presents provocative work from the 1960s to the theory converged, paralleling the sonic experi­ present by Trisha Brown, Lucinda Childs, Simone ments of John Cage, whose ideas had a tremen­ Forti, David Gordon, Deborah Hay, Steve Paxton , dous impact on Judson. Visual artists such as and Yvonne Rainer. What is surprising about the Robert Rauschenberg, who would create set ele­ program-which one might be tempted to view ments for Merce Cunningham, performed as well. as a retrospective-is how new and unsentimen­ tal it reads. For some viewers, the performances may have elicited concerned indifference, excitement, or The Judson movement defied the prevailing shock. For many, it was the first contemporary schools of modern dance and ballet, reacting dance they could physically relate to and actu­ against purely expressionistic movement or a tech­ ally imagine doing themselves. Judson cele­ nically rigid vocabulary. The results were pre­ brated the commonplace and the prosaic, and dictably unpredictable, with a concentrated focus demonstrated that there was beauty (or art, in on the action at hand. It often utilized pedestrian, any case) to be gleaned from daily life. It pro­ task-driven movement; analytical perspectives; vided a laboratory for a range of ideas of phe­ chance; repetition; improvisation; and text. The ' nomenal breadth, giving artists the chance to program, based at Judson Church in New York find, and train , their voices. Trisha Brown notes, City's Greenwich Village, was administered by "The National Endowment for the Arts was not Reverend AI Carmines, who recalls, "My most to be established until 1965- pre-money, pre­ immediate memory of the early years of the Jud- theater, abundant time. Time to explore, fail, get

Baryshnikov and members of the White Oak Dance Project Photo by Stephanie Berger continued on page 54

23 2001 Spring Brooklyn Academy of Music

Bruce C. Ratner Alan H. Fishman Chairman of the Board Chairman, Campaign for BAM

Karen Brooks Hopkins Joseph V. Melillo President Executive Producer

presents Compagnie Montalvo- Hervieu National Choreograph ic Center of Creteil and Va l de Marne Le Jardin io io ito ito

Approximate BAM Howard Gilman Opera House running time: May 2, 4, & 5 , 2001 , at 7:30pm 1 hour and Choreography and video concept Jose Montalvo 15 minutes with Associate choreographer Dominique Hervieu no intermission Music Antonio Vivaldi, Wiseguys, Lunatic Calm Lighting Christophe Pitoiset Costumes Alexandra Bertaut Pictures and video Pascal Minet, Etienne Aussel Infography Agnes Billard, Julien Delmotte

Dancers Arlequin , Salah Benlemqawanssa , Mario Chard , Court-Circuit, Clarisse Doukpe, Kalypha Doumbouya , Ahmed EI Jattari , Marjorie Hannoteaux , Blaise Kouakou , Erika La Quica , Chantal Loial , Melanie Lomoff , Bruno Lussier , Sabine Novel , Merlin Nyakam , Valerie Sangouard , Zheng Wu Le Jardin io io ito ito is part of France Moves, a city-wide festival of French dance.

Leadership Support: The Florence Gould Foundation, Credit Lyonnais, The French Ministry of Foreign Affairs through AFAA and the Cultural Services of the French Embassy, and the French Ministry of Culture and Communication

Major support: Vivendi Universal and L'Oreal

BAM Dance support: The Harkness Foundation for Dance and The Joyce Mertz-Gilmore Foundation

Major support for BAMcafe Live French programming in the Lepercq Space provided by The Lepercq Foundation.

Opening night support provided by La Caravel/e.

BAM thanks Theatre Development Fund for its support of this production. 25 10 10 ito ito

corners of Europe and North Africa. I remember being in a state of wonderment at these par­ ties, as intoxication invaded the bodies of the guests, before dance and song would transfig­ ure them further into a whirl of drunkenness and flirtation. Each in their turn transformed instantly into virtuoso artists-{)ne singing, the next dancing a Flamenco, a third playing mandolin. Fleeting moments turned dance into celebration, wild fantasy, limitless delight. These were joyous moments of freedom that released the animal side of our natures, invoked the pleasure of rhythm and song, and allowed us to be carried away by total physical release. Creating Le Jardin io io ito ito brought this jubilation back to me. It has allowed me to rediscover the emotions of my childhood in a dance that turns its back on xenophobia; instead, it has become a joyous ode to cosmopolitanism. The sources and influences that mark this work also go back to the world of Dada, with its endless inventiveness, its humor, its taste for the absurd and the anom­ alous, and its mixing of genres that break down the boundaries between sculpture, theater, dance, and poetry. Dada is the embodiment of an aesthetics of appropriation and re-inscription, and these principles are all apparent in Le Jardin. But Le Jardin io io ito ito is not at all a work of historic revision, rather it is li~e an echo, a distant resonance of this earlier movement.

Max Ernst and the Surrealists

You can find in Le Jardin resonances from the Surrealist Movement, notably with the imagistic poetry of Andre Breton and Pierre Reverdy. "10, io, ito, ito" is a wink to Max Ernst, a master of Jose Montalvo on Le Jardin io io ito ito collage. I very much like Max Ernst's definition Inspirations and Sources of collage: "Collage is a sensitive and exact instrument, like a seismograph, that can Le Jardin io io ito ito sprang from a diverse register the exact level of human happiness in range of influences. It was partly inspired by each epoch." The choreographic writing of Le my study of visual arts in my late adolescence, Jardin io io ito ito is a musical and visual partly from my world view as an adult today, collage. The screens of animals with human but at its heart it is inspired by memories as a heads was inspired by the Ernst collages. child. To my grandmother lowe my taste and Man is an animal. Art exists to play with this passion for the stories and the fables that are animal side and to transform it to an aesthetic behind all of my work. Each year she would emotion. Le Jardin io io ito ito carries that idea gather friends around her who had fought in across without weighing it down too much, I the Spanish Civil War. They came from the four hope, but expresses it instead with humor. This

26 10 10 ito ito hybrid represents also a springboard for our universal, something unconstrained by time or imagination that resonates with a mythology local circumstance. We are not interested in nos­ from time immemorial. talgia, we want to comment on the present in a wider context that allows for a complexity of Culture and Hybridity thought that doesn't leave out the past, and which opens it to the fortunes of reinvention. This work opens onto the memory of dance itself, shattering space and time, and bringing together a For many years Dominique Hervieu and I have personal vision of different dance worlds: the attempted to elaborate pluralistic concems in circus, traditional Chinese, Caribbean, our choreography in a way that resonates with Cameroonian, Ivory Coast, Baroque, contempo­ how we have arrived where we are today. We rary, smurf, breakdance, Flamenco, classical, and have attempted to describe our polyglot, cos­ physical theater. The interplay between these mopolitan, multicultural nature; our contempo­ styles of dance gives birth to a poetics of proximity rary reality and multiple and polymorphous and unfamiliarity, re-routing leaming in the direc­ identities. To do this we have tried to make a tion of movement, desire, fantasy, dreaming, and choreographic language that avoids the double childhood . This playful and fragmented explo­ traps of claiming original purity and uniformity. ration of the memory of dance gives rise to a poly­ phonic universality of music and movement, Le Jardin celebrates jubilation, the life that comes where each individual makes his or her mark, from body language, and which originates in and so doing breaks the mold of uniformity. many different cultures. In the contemporary world too often our encounter with different cul­ Each dancer, while taking his or her specific tures is one of conflict and pain, of malice, cultural practice into account, enters into a new affront, fanaticism, war, and massacres. In our relationship when it comes to this work. The work we attempt to show that dance is a meeting melding of one's original dance practice with place between multiple cultures, and it can open that of the company is a source of power in the our lives to precious spaces and pleasure, and to work. It creates an explosion of ideas and reflection . We want to show that dance can be musicality and brings up unexpected affinities creative euphoria, and it can en large our imagi­ and unorchestrated relationships between the nary world and enrich our identity. culture or origin and contemporary dance. Dance and the Politics of Change For all of us, dancers and choreographers of the Company, the question became more about I am not arrogant enough to believe that my the boundaries of dance than its origins. The work can influence political decision makers. artists by their differences and by their acts in Instead I hope to widen the imaginary limits of crossing borders are proof that true artistry our audiences. For as Edouard Glissant says, comes from a sharing of language and cultures. you cannot change somebody's circumstances This aesthetic choice can be a difficult road but in the world if you change nothing of his is one rich in multiple possibilities of invention imagination, if we do not change the idea that and pleasure. It leads to the creation of a new identity is fixed and intransigent. culture, which is a reflection of our multi­ ethnic, multicultural society. For me it is about finding a language to talk about the complex realities of the world today. At Compagnie Montalvo-Hervieu we share the To attempt to show that variety in the world is conviction that the poetic force at the foundation beautiful, and that all these elements are neces­ of original cultural practices is not itself outdated, sary for the construction of a healthy imaginary that this poetic core can be taken and applied to life, which is the prerequisite for change in the a new context because it holds something real world.

27 10 10 ito ito

The Process of Creation

When Dominique Hervieu , associate choreographer of Le Jardin io io ito ito, and I first met we were both at the beginning of our dance practice. Our different experiences of dance styles and our reflections on this were the starting point of our collaboration. An extraordinary dancer, she interpreted all of my works and won numerous interna­ tional prizes for doing so. Hervieu has been a decisive factor in my choreographic adventure . Her interpretative skill and creativity has allowed me to perfect work based on the energy of her exceptional virtuosity; she has thus allowed me to develop an original choreo­ graphic style.

The process of creation happens in several distinct steps. I have the responsibi lity for the major research, of deciding directions, for exam­ ple, elaborating a synopsis. Following this, Dominique and I work on the documentation, the references , and starting points that will sup­ port the work. At this stage she is intimately involved in the process. Next the technical team and the dancers enter the game. These are the collaborators that we choose together. In their own domains they are also the creators and we consider them co-authors of the dance. The bouncing back and forth of ideas, creation, and appropriation continues. That the dancers and technical team are also authors never eliminates the role of the choreographer as author, but it does modify the choreographer's function.

The dancer is not an instrument of the choreographer; he or she is an original, creative personality.

The function of the choreographer is to critique, to propose options, suggest inprovisations, and impose constraints that bring the inter­ preters to the place they couldn't get by themselves. It is rare that the dancers' suggestions are integrated straight into the dance. Usually the ideas need to be reworked , transformed , and reorganized so that they can become a coherent part of the artistic project.

- Jose Montalvo, September 2000

This article was adapted trom an interview conducted by Lee Christotis.

28 Photo, Laurent Philippe

Production credits

Lighting enginee r Vincent Paoli Sound enginee r Patrick Arnault Stage manager Pascal Dibilio Prop co nstru cti on Karine Fourniols Sew in g Celine Favier Ballet master Veronique Dupont Executi ve director Andre Curmi Manage r Anne Sauvage Tour logistics Prishelia Ayorisejo International tours Didier Le Besque , DLB Performing Arts

Le Jardin io io ito ito co-produced by:

Maison de la danse de Lyon, Theatre de la Ville/Paris, Atelier Choregraphique National, Le Theatre-Scene Nationale de Narbonne, Centre Choregraphique National de Creteil et du Val de Marne/Cie Montalvo-Hervieu. With the support of Caisse des Depots and Maison des Arts de Creteil. Thanks to Suplnfo and Cirque Joseph Bouglione.

National Choreographic Center of Creteil and Val de Marne receives financial support from the French Ministry of Culture DRAC lie de France, Conseil General du Val de Marne, and Ville de Creteil.

29 I\LlO\/A~v

France Moves staff

Artistic director Yorgos Loukos FRANCE Executive producer Didier Le Besque---DLB Performing Arts- Paris t-l 0 UES Festiva l coordinators Cultural Services of The French Embassy Pierre Buhler, Laurent Burin des Roziers, Fanny Aubert-Malaurie, Nicole Birmann Bloom , Pascal Bourdon , Veronique Godard , Antoine Vigne , Paula Cianci, Nathalie Savic, Celia Meaume, Clementine Aubry, Marie Pellen AFAA-Association Fran«

30 \ALho'~ \ALho

Compagnie Montalvo-Hervieu was founded in Jose Montalvo (choreographer), considered a 1985 by choreographer Jose Montalvo and major choreographic innovator in Europe, is dancer Dominique Hervieu. The company recognized for short and humorous works. He quickly gained recognition in the world of is the recipient of numerous international dance, partly through winning a number of choreography prizes and has been invited to prestigious international dance prizes. In 1986 major festiva ls and theaters around the globe to it won the Popular Award at the Concours showcase his work. One of Montalvo's most International de Nyon in Switzerland and First ambitious projects, Le Bal Moderne, took Prize for Trio at the International Choreography place as part of the Arts Etonnants in July Competition in Paris, thereafter winning wide­ 1993. The project consisted of four pieces that spread critical acclaim. In 1987 it won the the audience rehearsed and then performed, Solo Prize at the International Choreography exemplifying Montalvo's aim of audience inclu­ Competition in Cagliari and in 1988 won the siveness. In addition to his collaborations with Female Interpretation Prize at the International Dominique Hervieu, he has undertaken some Dance Competition in Paris. Since 1989 extraordinary dance projects, including choreo­ Compagnie Montalvo-Hervieu has taken a new graphing a dance for an entire city and shorter course, creating "events" that re ly on highly works that capture the fugitive compulsions of inventive choreography and movement-based a city and underscore the amazing diversity of theater. Gathering between 300 and 5,000 human bodies. people of all ages and backgrounds, Compagnie Montalvo-Hervieu conceived of Dominique Hervieu (associate choreographer) , productions based upon the particular circum­ has danced since age six and met Jose stances of the towns and festivals it visited . Montalvo at age 19. She has since won major Incorporating people with and without dance international prizes for performances of backgrounds, the company worked towards Montalvo's choreography. In 1991 Hervieu reinvigorating dance as a pleasurable, diverting, became assistant choreographer with poetic, unexpected , and simple experience. Compagnie Montalvo-Hervieu , and has since Jose Montalvo says, "Our challenge is to show become involved in the creative process of all that contemporary dance can be accessible, of the company's work. that it can impel a gathering like other dances have traditionally done in the past, and that Arlequin (aka Simhamed Benhalmia, dancer) everyone can take part in it." In addition to choreographs for the hip-hop group Division their wo rk with their company, Jose Montalvo Alpha. He has danced with Boggie Lockers and Dominique Hervieu continue to work with since 1997, for which he was awarded the dance practitioners in their efforts towards Volinine Prize. bringing dance into the center of daily cultural life. In June 1998 Jose Montalvo and Salah Benlemqawanssa (dancer), in addition to Dominique Hervieu were named directors of dancing for the hip-hop group Family, has the Centre Choregraphique National de Creteil appeared in Voyelles and Movement as part of et du Val-de-Marne, succeeding the esteemed the Camargo Company and has participated in choreographer Maguy Marin. In June 2000 various music videos and television commercials. Jose Montalvo was named artistic advisor for dance at the Theatre National de Chaillot. Mario Chard (dancer) is a member of the hip­ Major productions since 1992 include hop group Fantastik Breakers. He has partici­ Podebal (1992); Double Trouble (1993); pated in festiva ls such as Francofollies (1998), HoI/aka HoI/ala (1994); La Gloire de Jerome, La Villette (1996), and Zebroc (1997), as well Pilhaou Thibaou " (1995); Les Surprises de as performing with Boggie Lockers. Mnemosyne , La Mitrail/euse en etat de grace (1996); Paradis (1997); Le Jardin io io ito ito , Court-Circuit (dancer) is an actor, writer, and Le Rire de La Lyre , and Un nioc de comedic songwriter. Court-Circuit has performed Paradis (1999). both solo and with dance companies, including

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Beau Geste, as well as creating humorous as Assai Samba, Lolita Babindamana, Georges interludes for the French television show Monboye, and with the internationally Bouvard du Rire. renowned Zairean singer Kanda Bongo Man. She also founded her own company, Dife Kako, Clarisse Doukpe (dancer) is originally from at age 24. She has been a member of the Ivory Coast. She has worked with the Compagnie Montalvo-Hervieu since 1997. Nisoleh Company, Georges Monboye Company's production of Wattissera, and with Melanie Lomoff (dancer) completed her train­ choreographer Bernardo Montet on the produc­ ing at the Opera de Paris and the Conservatoire tion Isse Timosse. Superieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris. She has performed with Karine Saporta and Kalypha Doumbouya (dancer) began to dance the Arts Theatre ·in Rouen , Normandy. She has at age 16 with Tony Mascote. He currently been a member of Compagnie Montalvo­ dances with several hip-hop compan ies, Hervieu since 1997. notably with the Compagnie des Mercenaires. He has participated in severa l television Bruno Lussier (dancer) trained at the National spots and joined Compagnie Montalvo-Hervieu Circus School in Montreal and has worked in 1998. with Cabaret Achille Tonic and Cirque Baroque, as well as various Canadian companies and Ahmed EI Jattari (dancer) is a member of the street festivals. Compagnie des Mercenaires and makes regula r appearances at various hip-hop festivals. He Sabine Novel (dancer), a Baroque, classical, has been a member of Compagnie Montalvo­ jazz, and contemporary dancer, has been with Hervieu since 1994. Compagnie Montalvo-Hervieu since 1991.

Marjorie Hannoteaux (dancer) has worked as a Merlin Nyakam (dancer) became a principal model and actor. A self-taught dancer, she has dancer with the National Ballet in Cameroon at performed with the Nadir Benbelaidis neo­ age 16. Nyakam arrived in France in 1992 and classical dance company, Paradis Latin Review, has since worked with Richard Martin, Gerard and the jazz company Calabash. Goudot, Georges Monboye, Philippe Jamet, Frederic Lescure, and as a choreographer for Blaise Kouakou (dancer), originally from the singer Angelique Kidjo. He has been with Ivory Coast, was one of the creative forces Compagnie Monta lvo-Hervieu since 1997. behind the production Isse Timosse in 1997. She has also appeared in the production Valerie Sangouard (dancer) trained at the Wattissera for the Georges Monboye Company. Annie Fratellini National Circus School and the National Circus School in Montreal, and she Erika La Quica (aka Erika Winkler, dancer) has has worked with the Cabaret Achille Tonic and danced since age five. She has taught Flamenco the Cirque Baroque. and classical ballet in numerous French dance schools, as well as founding her own company Zheng Wu (dancer) trained at the Beijing to promote Spanish-style dancing outside of Dance Academy, where he specialized in tradi­ Spain. Winkler has performed with the Ballet du tional Chinese, classical, and contemporary Nord and the Spanish National Ballet. dance. He has also studied at the CNDC at Angers and, since joining Compagnie Chantal Loial (dancer), originally from Montalvo-Hervieu in 1998, has received first Guadeloupe, began dancing at age five. She prize at the Eighth International Dance has performed with such African ballet groups Competition in Paris.

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