Train stations have always been romantic meeting places for lovers. French choreographer Boris Charmatz makes full use of the hall of Brussels North Station and the Ancien Tri Postal, the old sorting office in Charleroi, according to one of dance’s essential elements: the duet. Around 1900, Arthur Schnitzler wrote the extraordinary text Reigen/La Ronde. The protocol of La Ronde, which functions on the basis of the entanglement of couples A/B,
B/C, C/D, is interesting because it is not solely about the duet of the couple: through a chain of love, Schnitzler also examines the society of his time.
In Boris Charmatz’ version of La Ronde, 16 dancers form a kind of implicit society: an intersectional and plural society, with male-female, male-male, female-female duets, of different ages and dance styles in all its forms and practices. In this piece, two opposites are at work: closure in the figure of the duet, and the infinite openness of the chain which moves and goes through the bodies. A fragile intimate form that endures. The dramaturgy is a dance in which the couples never close themselves off, always encountering one another, making a human chain, like a chain of transmission. Not like the transmission of a virus, but one of humanity, of touch ... ‘La Ronde’ is a human loop of dancing, singing and speaking duos. A collective momentum, an explosion of love. The time has come to meet one another again!
This crisis has touched upon the essence of what dance is: contact, desire, a collective surrender.
‘Physical distancing’ is the opposite of what dance is. Dance breaks distancing, it is a rupture of distance, it restores proximity where before there was distance. Dance is a vehicle of permeability between bodies. - Boris Charmatz
Duration
Brussels: ±6 hours, 3 loops of 2 hours
Charleroi: 2 hours
Tickets
FULL - Free - For seats, please reserve a time slot in advance. Standing places are still available without reservation. There is no time limit to the performance.
We recommend that you arrive at the Brussels-North station in advance, in order to reach the performance venue in time (you will be guided by signage and stewards).
Credits
Performance: Djino Alolo Sabin, Régis Badel, Quan Bui Ngoc, Boris Charmatz, Médéric Collignon, Raphaëlle Delaunay, Clément Delliaux (actor of the Compagnie de L'Oiseau Mouche), Pascal Greggory, Emmanuelle Huynh, Johanna Elisa Lemke, Marlène Saldana, Florian Spiry (actor of the Compagnie de L'Oiseau-Mouche), Asha Thomas, Sigrid Vinks, Laura Walravens and Frank Willens
Choreographic assistance: Magali Caillet Gajan with the support of Christophe Ives
Lighting: Yves Godin
Sound: Olivier Renouf
Technical director: Erik Houllier
Stage Manager: Fabrice Le Fur assisted by François Aubry
Sound manager: Perig Menez
Costumes: Sarah Bruchet, Marie Morel
Assistant Director: Hélène Joly
Production management: Lucas Chardon, Martina Hochmuth
Production managers: Florentine Busson, Briac Geffrault
Production and distribution: terrain
Brussels and Charleroi edition 2021: as part of EUROPALIA TRAINS & TRACKS
Coproduction: EUROPALIA, Biennale de Charleroi danse
With the support of the French Embassy in Belgium, the SNCB and AG Real Estate.
La Ronde was first conceived as part of the event Avant-travaux, le Grand Palais invite Boris Charmatz and the Portrait Boris Charmatz presented by the Festival d'Automne à Paris (49th edition), on January 16, 2021 at the Grand Palais in Paris.
Paris edition 2021
production: Rmn - Grand Palais and [terrain] with the exclusive patronage of CHANEL
co-production: Festival d'Automne à Paris; le phénix scène nationale pôle européen de création and NEXT Festival; Compagnie de L'Oiseau-Mouche
Supported by the Île-de-France Region and the Ministry of Culture - Direction Générale de la Création Artistique.
