For twenty years, Bartabas, who leads the Théâtre Equestre Zingaro (Equestrian Theatre), has roamed around the world seeking inspiration in music, pursuing his essential quest for the pure gesture wherein human beings and animals reconcile spirit and body as the profane and the sacred in utmost simplicity. Bartabas prefers ritual to spectacle. Each new musical encounter is a source of movement for this master. Algerian Berber music for the Opéra Equestre, the sonority of Rajasthan for Chimère, South Korean chants for Éclipse, contemporary partitions for Triptyk... In August 2002, Bartabas returned to the East and spent a few days in a Tantric monastery in Gyuto, located in a former Tibetan province in the far north-east of India. There he watched as disciples sought their individual accomplishment on Buddha's path, and was inspired by their rhythm, discipline and rigour which then helped him produce the images and the choreography for his new performance, Loungta, The Horses of the Wind.The riders, dancers and musicians are reunited in the ring. Ten Tibetan monks aged between twenty to seventy, diffuse the deep tone of their “buffalo voices”. On their traditional instruments, they play partitions which are indissociable from their daily religious practices. They agreed to leave their monastery to share three years of the daily life of the company.About thirty horses, twenty riders and dancers are clad in costumes inspired by certain ancestral rituals and their faces are the angry masks of the gods and goddesses of death. Bartabas returned from the jungle and the areas around the Himalayas with the desire to bring about a certain state of being among his horses and his riders, to attain the precision/aptness of an increasingly elementary beauty. Bartabas, while moving even further from the frivolity and frenzy of the contemporary West, re-asserts his philosophy, exalting ancient oriental values. He goes in search of the essence of beings, human or equine in a bid to bring them closer together and to celebrate them.
Distribution
by: Théâtre équestre Zingaro
conception, scenography and direction :Bartabas
the riders : Bartabas, Manuel Bigarnet, Kétile Dubus, Abderrahman El Bahjaoui, Michael Gilbert, Benjamin Grain, Solenn Heinrich, Elodie Mathieu, Etienne Régnier, Igor Verlivskoï, Messaoud Zeggane
the dancers : Fabrice Andriamilantonirinason, Tenzin Gönpo, Abdouel Karimou
the monks of the Gyuto monastery :Jhamba Genden, Lobsang Dargey, Tenzin Norbu, Migur Dorjee, Gyurmey Chogyal, Tashi Yoeser, Dhondup Thinlay, Lobsang Dorjee, Ngawang Thapkhe, Tsering Wangchuck
the horses :Apollon, Ares, Ascleptos, Chronos, Coppi, Darri, Demeter, Dionysos, Eros, Flash Okie Reina, Hades, Hephaistos, Hera, Hermès, Heza Great Royal Kid, Horizonte, Kid Label, King Black Solano, Le Caravage, Lobéro, Pan, Pantruche, Poseidon, Priape, Zancy Bar, Zeus and the donkey Master des Dieux and the gooses
stage manager :Daniel Gasson
costumes :Marie-Laurence Schakmundès
masks :Ehrard Stiefel
set :Didier Martin
stable master: Pierrick Moreau
assistant directors :Patricia Lopez, Anne Perron
Production
Production: Théâtre Équestre Zingaro
en coproduction avec :le Théâtre de Namur, Le Cargo- Scène nationale de Grenoble, Lille 2004, la Coursive-Scène nationale de La Rochelle
Avec l'aide: du ministère de la Culture et de la Communication (DMDTS), du Conseil général de Seine-Saint-Denis et de la Ville d'Aubervilliers
Remerciements :au service culturel de l'Ambassade de France à Delhi, à M. Tashi Phuntsok et M. Wangpo Bashi, bureau du Tibet, Paris, représentation de Sa Sainteté le Dalaï-Lama