NØTRE BØLÉRØ

Presentation

When I first listened to the music of Ravel's Bolero 20 years ago, I heard a lullaby from my childhood in the way a mother knows how to repeat it monotonously with an almost imperceptible "Décalé" tone, like an ode to the group, to its strength, as well as its fragility. In 2017-2018, I met Madame LEFEVRE, former dancer, choreographer and director of L'Opéra de Paris, then of the Cannes Dance Festival. She was a great advisor to me on this project, which for me made sense of my origins. So, in this "offbeat" tone, revisiting the original melody that winds tirelessly around itself, I intend to bring the body to life in its unique yet multiple presence.

I've based my analysis on the five parameters of:
Time, Rhythm, Melody, Modulation and Ritornello (enveloping this simple but very abstract music), and, according to my musical dance study, I gave one dancer time, another rhythm, the third melody, the fourth modulation, and finally the last ritornello. The ritornello being part of the great foundation of African music, I wanted to draw on the traditional music of my homeland - Korhogo in the north of Côte d'Ivoire, to recall my childhood linked to the dance of the panther men.

My intention was to cradle and at the same time awaken - in the words of Isadora Duncan: "Dance in the skin".
Thus, the vital momentum of Notre Boléro is this "force that unpredictably creates ever more complex forms", polymorphic, accompanied by five dancers, two musicians (drummer, flautist), on stage, the terms that emanate from this DANSE-MUSIQUE creation are:
Transcendence, Timelessness, Groove, Otherness, Connection, Rencontres, Actuelle, Moderne, evolving in a plastic rite-ritual universe.

Artistic Team

I called on Yann Clery, flutist musician and composer from Guyana, and Delphine Landgoff, French musician and drummer, under the musical supervision of Thibault Cohade. In residence for three days at L'Autre Canal in Nancy. The aim was to work on music that we wanted to be new, derived and inspired by bolero, but without falling into the trap of repetition. Using the five parameters, we shared stories from my childhood, and they even got me to sing the ritornello (laughs). I introduced the dancers to the musical creation during our studio visit to Nancy's Ballet de Lorraine in September 2022. It was very well received by my dancers, as well as by the Ballet de Lorraine team under the direction of Petter Jacobsson and Thomas Haley. Speaking of the dancers, I chose Pauline Sarranzin because of her quality of dance movement, her concentration over time and, above all, because she has her own universe of burlesque and song. I love Joel Brown's body modulation and silence, both drummer and dancer in competitions such as popping. Lory Laurac's melodic flow, with its enigmatic fluidity, leaves us spellbound. Serge Arthur Dodo, steeped in tradition in Côte d'Ivoire and Senegal's Ecole de Sable, and at once modern in Pina Bauch's Sacre du Printemps project, sends us all his rhythmic dimension. Maryem Dogui revisits the dances of the African diaspora with her brilliant jazz technique. Young lighting designer Louisa Mercier, with her background at TNS and HEAR, brings a kinetic approach. Set designer Ikhyeon Park, who studied at HEAR and Beaux Arts de Lyon, has been a loyal collaborator since my first creations. All this content, under my artistic direction, results in a composition of alchemy enabling me to create this living orchestra.

Co-producing Partners