Based in Aubervilliers, on the northern outskirts of Paris for twenty years now, the Zingaro equestrian theatre company has travelled wide and far. They created a new performance form where horse-riders and horses, traditional music and sophisticated images lead the dance. From the Cabarets Equestres in the early years to the more abstract and more sobre pieces recently, such as Éclipse (1997) with Korean musicians, Triptyk around the music of Stravinski and Pierre Boulez (2000) or Loungta, Les Chevaux de Vent, incorporating the low chants of Tibetan monks in 2003, Zingaro has delighted audiences from all over the world. In the same way as the productions mix the sacred and the profane, popular and high art, the troupe led by its founder, Bartabas, combines the prestige of a high level of technical prowess with the infinite poetry of journeys and imagination.
Bartabas and Avignon have enjoyed a close relationship for more than 20 years: Cabarets Equestres I and II (1984-1987) in the Off, and Cabaret Equestre III (1989), Opéra Équestre (1991), Chimère (1994), Éclipse (1997) and Triptyk (2000) have all been performed at the Avignon Festival.
To share dawn with the public, that special time of silences and concentration which Bartabas saves for “horse-talk”, that's the idea for these few sunrises. Every morning, before rehearsals, the director of Zingaro who is over and above all a horse-back performer, makes a special place for his art. This moment of essential closeness to the work of dialogue and relationship with the animal is a daily rendezvous in the morning solitude and from it comes an extraordinary feeling even if you haven's seen one of Bartabas and his horses' performances.
Bartabas wants to show the audience what bonds him inextricably to horses. Listening, giving attention, researching and making experiments that go as far as the beauty of gesture and the magical moments of grace. Far from the performance environment, with just a simple music background, this work will be visible to only a limited number of spectators.
In the artist's words, “I would like to give the spectator, so close up, an entrée into this almost immodest intimacy, so that they can surprise this ‘thing' that is not really meant to be seen.”
Irène Filiberti
Distribution
conception : Bartabas
musique enregistrée : musique soufie, Ilâhî et nefes, Kudsi Erguner et Nezih Uzel
cavalier : Bartabas
cheval : Le Caravage
soin du cheval : Sarah Boulier
costumes : Marie-Laurence Schakmundès, Gérard Viard
Production
Coproduction : Théâtre équestre Zingaro, Festival d'Avignon
