Short Stories

Carolyn Carlson

A two to three pieces program to be made out of 7 soli and duets including 2 creations 2015, depending on the dancers’ availabilities:

Creation 2015 solo for Won Myeong Won / Creation 2015 Density 21.5 All that Falls / Wind Woman / Mandala / Immersion / Li

Carolyn Carlson Company · c/o Théâtre National de Chaillot · 1 Place du Trocadéro · 75116 Paris

Burning - Creation 2015 Solo

Length | 20 min

Production | Carolyn Carlson Company Coproduction | Adami for its 60th years of existence, within the framework of Festival June Events - CDC Atelier de Paris-Carolyn Carlson

Premiere June 18th, Festival June Events, Théâtre du Soleil, Paris.

Carolyn Carlson and Won Myeong Won have already collaborated for the creation Tigers in the tea house in 2004, for 3 dancers. Ten years after, Carolyn Carlson wishes to start with him a new collaboration, with the intention to choreograph a solo for this exceptional Korean dancer, as she already did for the dancers Sara Orselli and Céline Maufroid, two emblematic figures of the company.

“I bring down a bowl of fire from the mountains Bow to the universe and burn my old things I burn my bad heart no remorse remains not even the ashes.”

« De la montagne J’apporte un bol rempli de feu En offrande à l’univers J’y brûle mon passé Je brûle le mal dans mon cœur Aucun remords Pas même de cendres.

Carolyn Carlson Company · c/o Théâtre National de Chaillot · 1 Place du Trocadéro · 75116 Paris

Density 21.5 – Re-creation 2015 Solo

Creation May 24, 1973 at the Paris Opera.

Length | 8 min

Production | Carolyn Carlson Company Coproduction | Adami for its 60th years of existence, within the framework of Festival June Events - CDC Atelier de Paris-Carolyn Carlson

Premiere June 18th, Festival June Events, Théâtre du Soleil, Paris.

Invited on May 24, 1973 by director of the Paris Opera, Rolf Liebermann, for a tribute evening to Varèse, Carolyn Carlson presents a masterful and ethereal solo, developing a real poetics of space on a music by composer Edgard Varèse. This solo is an important step in the choreographer's career and for contemporary dance in France. The images of Carlson's figure mid-way between human and bird fit into the choreographic imagination and revolutionize the dance world.

In 2015, 42 years after the creation of Density 21.5 at the Paris Opera, and 7 years after having passed on her mythical solo Blue Lady to Tero Saarinen and Jacky Berger, Carolyn Carlson is continuing her transfer process and gives Density 21.5 to dancer Isida Micani, as a member of the Carolyn Carlson Company.

Carolyn Carlson Company · c/o Théâtre National de Chaillot · 1 Place du Trocadéro · 75116 Paris

All that falls - Creation 2013 Duet

Length | 30 min

Line production | Carolyn Carlson Company Original production | Centre Chorégraphique National Roubaix Nord Pas de Calais

Inspired by the book Le Prophète by Khalil Gibran, which speaks for love and tolerance in between human beings, the duet, a man and a woman, builds its relationship like a tree of life. The house building, slowly, board by board, deeply planted, stands for love building. Everything that falls between sky and earth. The place where we are.

Carolyn Carlson Company · c/o Théâtre National de Chaillot · 1 Place du Trocadéro · 75116 Paris

Wind woman - Creation 2011 Solo

Choreography | Carolyn Carlson Dance | Céline Maufroid Original music | Nicolas de Zorzi Lights | Guillaume Bonneau

Length | 8 min

Line production | Carolyn Carlson Company original production | Centre Chorégraphique National Roubaix Nord-Pas de Calais with the support of Teatro San Carlo, Naples

With Wind woman, Carolyn Carlson is questioning transient feelings. Either soft or extremely powerful, wind flows without lasting. She is listening to our inner breath as well as the wind surrounding us.

Each human being through his breathing produces wind, Wind woman invites everyone to listen to the breath of earth and of his own soul.

Carolyn Carlson Company · c/o Théâtre National de Chaillot · 1 Place du Trocadéro · 75116 Paris

Mandala – Creation 2010 Solo

Length | 30 min

Line production | Carolyn Carlson Company Original production | Centre Chorégraphique National Roubaix Nord-Pas de Calais in collaboration with Atelier de Paris-Carolyn Carlson

Carolyn Carlson’s solos showcase her spiritual and existential approach to dance. She describes them as ways of sharing the state of solitude that is peculiar to the human condition.

Mandala is an incarnation of the human heart beat, a constituent of the space universally shared by every being, from the beginning to the end of our existence. Here, lived time takes the form of the ensō, the circle of Zen Buddhism that symbolises both the universe and artistic perfection, which can only be achieved by a totally free spirit.

The circular patterns found in crop fields are another source of inspiration. They remain without explanation, like a message from a spirit force or from elsewhere, whose unexpectedly beautiful shapes leave a visual mark deep down in the soul. A similar mark is left by Michael Gordon’s powerful music. It carries the energy of the movements and strengthens them with the insistent undulation of a beat.

Sara Orselli gives substance to a piece that represents a culmination of the complicity established between Carolyn Carlson and her dancer over more than a decade.

Carolyn Carlson Company · c/o Théâtre National de Chaillot · 1 Place du Trocadéro · 75116 Paris

Immersion – Creation 2010 Solo

Choreography and dance | Carolyn Carlson Original music | Nicolas de Zorzi Lights | Guillaume Bonneau

Length | 18 min

Line production | Carolyn Carlson Company Original production I Centre Chorégraphique National Roubaix Nord-Pas de Calais In partnership with Théâtre National de Chaillot

Carolyn Carlson, the eternal “water lady”, embodies pure and unique dance like an expression of the continually metamorphosing movement of water. To the sound of waves, the choreographer immerses herself in its fluidity, its intense presence and its unfathomable depths.

Echoing the piece eau, which is entirely dedicated to her favorite theme, she offers the audience a fascinating vision of dance driven by the life force of this natural element.

Carolyn Carlson Company · c/o Théâtre National de Chaillot · 1 Place du Trocadéro · 75116 Paris

Li – Creation 2007 Duet

Length | 25 min

Line production | Carolyn Carlson Company original production | Centre Chorégraphique National Roubaix Nord-Pas de Calais with the support of the Quinzaine du Japon

"Li" is an ideogram which referred originally to the grain in jade and wood, the « organic pattern » in the principle of all things, when one is in accord with the "Tao".

The watercourse of nature The flowing of Wind The dark and the light The polarity of yin and yang

Becoming what one is the other Without verbal comment.

Carolyn Carlson Company · c/o Théâtre National de Chaillot · 1 Place du Trocadéro · 75116 Paris

Carolyn Carlson References

California-born Carolyn Carlson defines herself first and foremost as a nomad. From San Francisco Bay to the University of Utah, from the Alwin Nikolaïs company in New York to Anne Béranger’s in France, from Paris Opera Ballet to Teatrodanza La Fenice in Venice, from the Théâtre de la Ville de Paris to Helsinki, from Ballet Cullberg to La Cartoucherie in Paris, from the Venice Biennale to Roubaix, Carlson is a tireless traveller, always seeking to develop and share her poetic universe.

She arrived in France in 1971 the beneficiary of Alwin Nikolaïs’’ ideas about movement, composition and teaching. The following year, with Rituel pour un rêve mort, she wrote a poetic manifesto that defined an approach to her work that she has adhered to ever since: dance that is strongly oriented towards philosophy and spirituality. Carlson prefers the term ‘visual poetry’ to ‘choreography’ to describe her work.

For four decades, Carlson has had significant influence and success in many European countries. She played a key role in the birth of French and Italian contemporary dance through the GRTOP (theatre research group) at Paris Opera Ballet and Teatrodanza at La Fenice. . She has created over 100 pieces, a large number of which are landmarks in the history of dance, including Density 21.5, The Year of the Horse, Blue Lady, Steppe, Maa, Signes, Writings on Water and Inanna. In 2006, her work was rewarded with the first ever Golden Lion given to a choreographer by the Venice Biennale.

Founding artistic director of the Atelier de Paris-Carolyn Carlson, she is now, since 2014 and for a two-year period, associated artist to Théâtre National de Chaillot, where the Carolyn Carlson Company has settled.

Career highlights

1965-1971 Soloist in the Alwin Nikolaïs Company 1974 -1980 Etoile-Chorégraphe (‘Star Choreographer’) at Paris Opera Ballet (GRTOP) 1980-1984 Artistic director of Teatrodanza La Fenice, Venice 1985-1991 Residence at the Théâtre de la Ville, Paris 1991-1992 Residence at the Finnish National Ballet and Helsinki City Theatre Dance Cy 1994-1995 Artistic director of Ballet Cullberg, Stockholm 1999 -2002 Artistic director of the dance section at the Venice Biennale Since 1999 Artistic director of the Atelier de Paris-Carolyn Carlson 2004 -2013 Director of the National Choreographic Centre Roubaix Nord-Pas de Calais Since 2014 Director of the Carolyn Carlson Company Residence at the Théâtre National de Chaillot, Paris

Carolyn Carlson Company · c/o Théâtre National de Chaillot · 1 Place du Trocadéro · 75116 Paris

Carolyn Carlson Company

“The Carolyn Carlson Company is a hive of activity, an area of creativity and freedom in which intertwine gesture and poetic thought...”

January 2014: after nine years as director of the CCN de Roubaix Nord-Pas de Calais, Carolyn Carlson returns to Paris and funds her company, the Carolyn Carlson Company (CCCy).

With a unique repertory and accompanied by dancers true to her poetical gesture, Carolyn pursues her creative process : each year, the Carolyn Carlson Company will carry out at least two large scale projects, as well as transmit repertoire pieces to the most prestigious international ballets.

Now in residence in the Théâtre National de Chaillot, the Company is at the very center of Parisian choreographic scene. Carolyn Carlson will propose improvisational sessions concerning her unique technique from the heritage of Alwin Nikolaïs, including the transmission of her repertoire, and artistic encounters to share with the public.

Contacts

Claire de Zorzi | General Manager / Booking M. +33 (0)6 14 01 43 00 | E. [email protected]

Marie Greulich | Tour Manager T. +33 (0)3 59 01 46 50 | M. +33 (0)6 20 47 20 41 | E. [email protected]

Gihane Besse | Communication and mediation projects T. +33 (0)1 53 65 31 84 | M. +33 (0)6 83 97 68 92 | E. [email protected]

Carolyn Carlson Company c/o Théâtre National Chaillot 1 place du Trocadéro 75116 Paris +33 (0)1 53 65 31 84 www.carolyn-carlson.com

The Carolyn Carlson Company is supported by the French Ministry for Culture, and receives the support of Crédit du Nord, within the framework of its residency at Théâtre National de Chaillot - Paris.

Copyrights photos : Frédéric Iovino, Claude Le Anh, Laurent Paillier, Alain Fleischer, Anna Solé

Carolyn Carlson Company · c/o Théâtre National de Chaillot · 1 Place du Trocadéro · 75116 Paris