Eight men, some of whom come from the Mediterranean basin, stamp the ground with their feet, spin around and join hands. Etched with different cultures and choreographic traditions, they dance, however, a common folklore, without any territory other than the stage. Christian Rizzo brought them together to find a state, an emotion that took hold of him in 2004, during a show in Istanbul. Before the sudden appearance of a group of men doing a short and powerful folk dance, he remained “dumbfounded”. Ever since, this intense, archaic emotion regularly seizes him, reminiscence rather than a memory of an experience that very deeply affected him. For the most part minimalist, repetitive and done in groups, traditional dances share the same motifs, the same impulses. What then happens if you take this common essence out of any specific geographic and cultural context? If you make this substrate vibrate between two drums that develop a single and same piece over the long run, at the boundaries of tribal music, psychedelic rock and dub? With Based on a True Story, Christian Rizzo gives himself up to this alchemical experience, seeking a telluric dance that hollows out the ground at the same time as it aims at elevation - a dance that defies the categories of “traditional” and “contemporary”. Here, the Mediterranean is a breath rather than a geopolitical reality, the place for a choreographic and intimate pilgrimage, whose challenge would be to crystallize then share a sensation. Christian Rizzo carries out this experiment with a few long-time companions – the lighting creator Caty Olive, the composer Didier Ambact, the dancers Pep Garrigues and Kerem Gelebek – but also with six new interpreters and a musician, chosen for the occasion, who will form a united and fragile community, a virile and abandoned gang. RB
Distribution
conception, choreography, scenography and costumes Christian Rizzo
music Didier Ambact et King Q4
lighting Caty Olive
with Fabien Almakiewicz, Didier Ambact, Yaïr Barelli, Massimo Fusco, Miguel Garcia Llorens, Pep Garrigues, Kerem Gelebek, King Q4, Filipe Lourenco, Roberto Martínez
Production
production l'association fragile
coproduction Festival d'Avignon, Théâtre de la Ville-Paris, Centre de Développement Chorégraphique de Toulouse-Midi-Pyrénées, La Ménagerie de Verre (Paris), La Filature Scène nationale (Mulhouse), L'apostrophe Scène nationale de Cergy-Pontoise et du Val d'Oise, l'Opéra de Lille, Centre chorégraphique national de Rillieux-la-Pape
artist in residence: Centre chorégraphique national Roubaix Nord-Pas de Calais
with the support of Région Nord-Pas de Calais et de la convention Institut français-Ville de Lille, of l'association Beaumarchais-SACD et de l'Institut français dans le cadre du fonds de production CIRCLES