Seeds (back to the land) Creation 2016
Carolyn Carlson
Piece for 3 dancers For young and all audiences
Seeds (back to the land) Creation 2016
Choreography | Carolyn Carlson Choreographic Assistant | Sara Orselli
Dance | Chinatsu Kosakatani, Ismaera Takeo Ishii, Alexis Ochin Elyx (animated by YAK)
Video creation, animation | Yacine Aït Kaci (YAK)
Original music | Aleksi Aubry-Carlson
Lights | Guillaume Bonneau
Costumes | Olivier Mulin Costumes fabrication | Fatima Azakkour Ismaera’s outfit by Arnaud Lazérat
Props and scenery | Gilles Nicolas
Production | Carolyn Carlson Company Coproduction | Théâtre National de Chaillot ; CCN de Rillieux-la-Pape In collaboration with Briqueterie / CDC Val de Marne ; CDC Atelier de Paris-Carolyn Carlson and Studio 28 with the support of Crédit du Nord
Length | 50 min Piece for all audiences from age 7
On tour
- 4 & 5 May 2017: Théâtre des Bergeries, Noisy-le-Sec - 27 to 30 May 2017: Shenzhen & Beijing (China) - 12 & 13 Octobre 2017: Valence - 23 & 24 Septembre 2017: Moscow (RU) - 28 Octobre 2017: Cannes - Mars 2018: Saint-Etienne, Lyon, Montceau, Dinan, Aubervilliers… (booking in progress)
TV News (french national TV TF1 – 01/16/16) about Seeds: http://lci.tf1.fr/jt-we/videos/2016/seeds- l-ode-a-la-nature-signee-carolyn-carlson-8707064.html?xtmc=carolyn%20carlson&xtcr=1
TV cultural show « Entrée Libre » France 5 – 02/11/16 about Seeds and others creations by Carolyn Carlson: http://dai.ly/x3rpirt Seeds (back to the land) Creation 2016
In 2006, Carolyn Carlson created her solo
Double Vision in close partnership with the artist ---- Yacine Aït Kaci. In this solo, the space was One seed planted echoing the body, the stage was an immense ten-thousand trees projection screen, the gigantic costumes were dust, wind, and copper wings the skin of an image in perpetual movement. scattering of the seeds
--- Today, Carolyn and Yacine (YAK) initiate a new creation, this time aimed at young audiences.
Carolyn choreographs; Yacine animates ELYX, a small drawned figure placed in a real world in order to open our eyes on what is surrounding us, and transform reality with the only power of our imagination.
Seeds is a joyful ode to Mother Earth, as much as a call to the future generations for a greater awareness of environmental urgency and the danger of daily extinctions of many living species.
----
The performers imagine the world of tomorrow: I pluck a petal from a flower a couple of Japanese dancers who are pin it to the wall becoming aware of the danger; a third dancer, to remember how vast the mirror image of Elyx on stage, questioning the Universe sings audience both young and old alike, all coming born to seed and mystery from a seed; and Elyx, who in a way is the --- fourth dancer, as a whistleblower angel.
Carolyn Carlson
The title, Seeds, deals with themes such as birth, or rebirth, an ode to hope: seeds will be spread, virtually or physically, for the blooming of new ideas and desires, to celebrate life.
Questions to Carolyn Carlson and Yacine Aït Kaci
The title of the piece, Seeds, refers to birth, rebirth, hope. What is your source of inspiration?
CC – It’s a call to awareness: the Earth is in danger, I’m talking about an environmental urgency, numerous species of plants, animals and insects are under threat of extinction. We have to be aware that what enables us to live on this planet, our food, the air we breathe, our humanity; they all come from seeds, seeds that give birth. This piece is an ode to the seed, sacred source. Let’s cherish what has been given to us, let’s think of the future generations who will have to preserve the Earth. In Norway there is a world stock of seeds, a place where are stored all seeds from all subsistence crops of the Planet in order to preserve genetic diversity. I think it’s brilliant and promising!
You collaborate again with the visual artist Yacine Aït Kaci, with whom you created your solo Double Vision in 2006. Why did you choose him again? CC - Yacine is a visual artist, who can express with video concepts what we can barely express with words. It was the case for Double Vision already, we literally drew the piece, it served as a basis to create my movement, my poetry. Video magnified my choreographic language. We will use the same method for Seeds, Yacine’s visual creations will tell the story of the piece: with the video, we will go from a seed falling to the ground to a tree growing. It’s fantastic.
YAK – 10 years after our first and successful collaboration, Double Vision, with Electronic Shadow, it is a pleasure to work with Carolyn again and at the same time it is a big step for me. I don’t neglect technology with Elyx, on the contrary I devote myself to the next stage, its fusion with humanity. Humanity that becomes a sort of lifeblood, an invisible link that gradually defines it like an entity in itself. Those seeds of culture, imagination and knowledge, those seeds that are transmitted and passed out, are those of this living system we belong to, with joy and full awareness.
What inspires you in Elyx, the little guy drawn by Yacine?
CC – When I contacted Yacine for this new collaboration, I didn’t knew that he had created Elyx, a « paper figure » like he calls it. Elyx is a virtual charming character, who tells a story. He represents our first conscience and responds to Humanity’s need to gather and plant seeds. On stage there are 3 dancers and Elyx: a couple of Japanese dancers, Chinatsu Kosakatani; who knows perfectly my work as she was 10 years with me in Roubaix’s CCN; and Ismaera Takeo Ishii, portraying Humanity about to realize. They are observed by a third figure: Alexis Ochin, who questions, he is the intermediary between virtual and real worlds. I’d like to quote Carl Jung who talks of « Shadow », our individual part that doesn’t know itself. Elyx will come and go, he will question our subconscious with the necessary dose of fantasy. Between reality and fiction, Elyx will personify the 4th dancer of the piece, Alexis Ochin’s alter ego.
YAK – Before words, drawing is one of the most basic expressions in our life learning process. All at once language and creation object, drawing is universal, nobody can say he has never drawn. When a child draws a human being, it’s often reduced to the essential, a head, a body and limbs. Elyx is that drawing grown up, a graphical language reduced to the essential to maximize its expression, with that same child’s view on the world, in which everything is possible, imagination and reality exist side by side in a continuous dance. Elyx has this innocent view, without naivety on what we forget to watch, the daily poetry, with empathy and humor most of the time. Elyx enjoys the fruits of chances that grow in day-to-day life, the city, the people, the situations. This harvest lies on an abundant value, imagination, poetry and joy.
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.
Founder of the Atelier de Paris-Carolyn Carlson at the Cartoucherie in 1999, she was associated artist to Théâtre National de Chaillot from 2014 to 2016 with the Carolyn Carlson Company, and now continues her projects around the world.
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 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 2014-2016: residency in Théâtre National de Chaillot, Paris Artistic collaborators
Sara Orselli – choreographic assistant
Sara Orselli starts her dance studies at Dance Gallery under the direction of Valentina Romito and Rita Petrone, then from 1999 to 2002 she studies at Isola Danza, the academy of Biennale de Venise then directed by Carolyn Carlson. She dances in Parabola, 1999, Light Bringers, 2000, J. Beuys Song 2001.
In 2003, she moves to Paris and becomes part of Juha Marsalo’s company in Prologue d’une Scène d’amour, Perle and Parfum. In parallel, she has been assisting Carolyn Carlson for years: Wash the Flowers in Luzern (2005), Les Rêves de Karabine Klaxon (2006), and more recently Woman in a room (2013) and Pneuma (2014) for the Bordeaux Opera.
Sara Orselli regularly dances in Carolyn Carlson’s pieces: Inanna, Water born, eau, Present Memory, Mundus Imaginalis, Mandala, we were horses, Synchronicity and Now.
Yacine Aït Kaci – visual creator
Yacine Aït Kaci, born in 1973, graduated from the Ecole Nationale des Arts décoratifs in Paris where he received a multidisciplinary education on multimedia. He signs, first as artistic director then as producer, a series of multimedia and television creations for the Centre Pompidou, the Louvre, Yves Saint-Laurent, and the TV program Archimède on ARTE.
Yacine meets Naziha Mestaoui in 2000, and they decide to join their respective creative skills. Founded in Paris, Electronic Shadow is a hybrid multimedia and design platform whose activity is based on research and innovation, both in terms of art through numerous exhibitions (MoMA in NY, Centre Georges Pompidou, Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, la Villette, Japan Media Art Festival, etc.), and technology (patented space/image projection system). The creation of Double Vision in 2006, born of the meeting with Carolyn and coproduced by IDEALID, enabled Electronic Shadow to explore a new artistic field and new perspectives of creation.
Aleksi Aubry-Carlson – composer
Aleksi Aubry-Carlson initiates to electric and acoustic guitar at age 11, with Ehat Musa among others. In 2002, he takes classes from David Lampel then Jean-Michel Bardez (Paris’ Conservatoires) in classical harmony until he gets his diploma. In parallel he perfects himself in improvisation, organ and follows an orchestration training with Henri-Claude Fantapié.
Composer above all, he has worked for United Colors of Benetton in Fabrica, their multimedia centre (Venice). He creates music for dance pieces for Carolyn Carlson, Alessandra Ferrarri and Alberto Casarotto. Since 2006, he regularly composes for internet medias, commercials, short films, animation films, mapping projections and video games. In 2015 he creates the music of an English full-length movie.
Olivier Mulin – costume designer
Olivier Mulin starts his career in 1998 working for Jean Paul Gaultier and carries on as a free-lance designer (René Derhy, Kenzo Jean's, Sonia Rykiel, Missoni…). In 2005, his career branches off into styling for press magazines such as WAD, West-East, Modzik, Blend, Glint, OOB, Sport&Style and mostly Standard Magazine, of which he is now Fashion Editor in Chief. Meanwhile, he participates also in the organization of prestige events (Samsung, Volcom, Marks&Spencer, Luxotica/Mikli, Swarovski…) and works on celebrities’ looks like Julia Faure and La Cantadora, or rock bands like The Dø, TwinTwin, YaltaClub or Ibeyi. From 2006 to 2013, he works as Artistic Director for Paul&Joe menswear and on lookbooks for Paul&JoeSister and womenswear, Cache-Cache, Émile Lafaurie or Lucien Wang and collaborates with the young designer Arnaud Lazérat. For the performing arts he designs the costumes of three pieces by the choreographer Juha Marsalo, and in 2014, he takes part in the creation of «Haunted By Wars» by Eszter Salamon, in tandem with the artist Vava Dudu ; for the theatre, he works with Vincent Thomasset, Anne Rebeschini, Lucie Berelowitsch, and Nathalie Broizat.
Guillaume Bonneau – light designer
Working since 1998 in the field of performing arts, he is a console operator for « 13 à table », « Marcel et son orchestre » (French song), and Birdy Nam Nam (electronic music), and designs the lights for the « Beatles Celebration » (The Beatles’ tribute band). Guillaume starts to work with Carolyn Carlson in 2007, at first as a light manager on tour for the pieces Hidden, Present Memory, Short stories, Dialogue with Rothko, then as a light designer for Immersion, Wind Woman, All that falls, Density 21.5 and Burning.
Gilles Nicolas – prop master
Gilles Nicolas studies and practices engraving and lithography under the direction of the painter and engraver Mathéos Florakis in Berlin, then in Geneviève Couteau’s studio in Clisson. He takes part in several exhibitions in Paris’ Grand Palais, Nantes and Bruxelles. At the request of Dick Annegarn, he illustrates a dozen of his songs.
He permanently uses sketching, drawing, painting and sculpting and specializes in conception and fabrication of « dioramas ». He also makes animal sculpture and bronze and participates in museum projects for example for the Centre Georges Pompidou (« L’univers de Borgès », « Ombre et lumière »), the Cité des Sciences et de l’Industrie and the national Natural History Museum of Paris.
In 2006 he works for the first time with Carolyn Carlson on the piece for young audience « Les rêves de Karabine Klaxon » and since 2007 he teaches scenography in ENSATT school (National School of Arts and Techniques for Theatre).
Dancers
Chinatsu Kosakatani Of Japanese origin, Chinatsu Kosakatani trains herself first in the Yamamouchi Ballet School of Osaka and then in the Stedelijk Institut voor Ballet in Anvers (Belgium). She works for the Oldenburgisches Staatstheater (Germany), and at the Danza prospettiva di Vittorio Biagi company in Rome. She dances for Maryse Delente, Jean-Claude Gallotta, Itzik Galili, Ohad Naharin, Jean Guizerix, Rui Horta and Michel Kelemenis after having joined the Ballet du Nord in Roubaix in 1998.
Under the direction of Carolyn Carlson, she dances in Inanna, Down by the river, Full Moon, Water Born, Li, Hidden, Eau, Present memory, Mundus Imaginalis and we were horses. In 2010, she creates her first piece Ahimsa and, in 2011, Roubaix Choreographic National Center gives her the creation of a choreography for a territory-based project called dansewindows jazz. She is part of the program to support younger talents, Red Brick #B, with a third choreography, Something like.
In 2013, she dances for Caterina Sagna in Bal en Chine, in 2014 she takes over a part in Olivier Dubois’s creation Revolution and dances in Tracks, by hip-hop choreographer Brahim Bouchelaghem.
Ismaera Takeo Ishii Takeo Ishii is native from Japan. Skillful and unclassifiable dancer aged 30, his multiple experiences led him to master contemporary and contact dance, modern jazz, butô, sabar as well as hip hop from his trips and trainings in Senegal, the United States, Holland, Japan and France.
Settled in France since 2012, he has collaborated with several French and foreign artists: David Zambrano, Monika Gintersdorfer, Brahim Bouchelaghem, Kadir Amigo Memis, Juha Marsalo... He was finalist for the international dance competition Juste Debout in the category "experimental" representing Japan (organised in Paris Bercy).
Alexis Ochin Alexis Ochin discovers the Jacques Lecoq movement at the international School of Theater Lassâad in Brussels. He practices there dramatic mime, white pantomime, and masked acting in commedia dell'arte and as a clown. In parallel, he trains with dancers and choreographers Christina Crasto, Thérèse Dutheil, A.T. De Keersmaeker, Peter Goss, and Carolyn Carlson.
He works as a dancer, comedian, mime, puppeteer for the companies Lafeuille d'automne, Chicos Mambo and Mano Labo. In 2011, he performs and dances with Corinne and Gilles Benizio (aka Shirley et Dino) in the burlesque ballet La belle dormant, accompanied by the philarmonic orchestra of Brussels. He also works as manipulator and comedian for the visual poetry act La statue à deux têtes by Jérôme Murat at the Lido de Paris.
In 2014, he is a performer for the Pietragalla-Derouault company in the creation Les Chaises?, a poetic-absurd duo inspired by Eugène Ionesco. Since autumn 2014, he has been dancing in Tutu at Théâtre Bobino.
Elyx (animated by YAK) Yacine Aït Kaci, aka YAK, created the figure of ELYX in 2011, a little drawned guy who casts a tender, funny, poetic and off-the-wall eye on reality.
Elyx travels around the world, safe and warm in a little booklet which opens once in a while on a moment, a situation. Using social networks as main media, Elyx has become a sort of digital personality, sharing the everyday life of his creator and community. Then he has become a virtual UN ambassador, accompanying most of the International Days and has produced an illustrated version of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
In September 2015 Elyx appears also in a book Elyx, l’ambassadeur du sourire.
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), in residency at the Théâtre National de Chaillot from 2014 to 2016.
With a unique repertory and accompanied by dancers true to her poetical gesture, Carolyn pursues her creative process: each year, the Carolyn Carlson Company carries out at least two large scale projects, a creation and the transmission of repertoire pieces to the most prestigious international ballets, while continuing touring the choreographers’ creations worldwide.
Contacts
Claire de Zorzi | General Manager / Booking +33 6 14 01 43 00 | [email protected]
Marie Greulich | Tour Manager +33 3 59 01 46 50 | +33 6 20 47 20 41 | [email protected]
Siham Lahkim | Production and communication manager +33 7 81 98 97 48 | [email protected]
Carolyn Carlson Company [email protected] www.carolyn-carlson.com
The Carolyn Carlson Company is funded by the French Ministry for Culture, and receives the support of Tilder.
Photos credits: Frédéric Iovino, Jean-Louis Fernandez Elyx drawings: YAK