FEDORA - Canine Jaunâtre 3

Presentation

Marlene Monteiro Freitas wrote the following text about this project, which is in its early idea phase:

Canine Jaunâtre 3 is alike a Lego construction site played by the figurines - it is a kind of a game ruled by contradictory principles. Scaffolds, dust, tasks, orders, accidents and other elements constitute our construction site. Constructing and demolishing, doing and undoing, advancing and receding, constitute the principles out of which the performance shall emerge.

"WHERE THE HEART BEATS, IS NOT WHERE THE HEART PARKS"

This sentence was written after my encounter with Batsheva Dance Company dancers and encapsulates the sense of this encounter. In Batsheva I acknowledge the extension of the physical capacity of the body, beyond its normal organization, functions, gender, humor, codes... While the virtuoso of these dancers matters, the pursuit is towards forms of metamorphosis beyond virtuosity. A non-hierarchical body, as blatant as surreptitious, not ruled by a brain, not pulsed by a heart, in its capacity to metamorphose, is quite another thing.

Method: researching on music, films, images, literature, essays, movements; construction of an Atlas; sharing of the Atlas; transmission of pre-written movements; creation of movements from images; writing with, for and from a specific performer; writing with, for and from a small group of performers; the “my mirror or my imaginary reflection” strategy; to be, instead of saying or telling; truly make the fake; alike in dreams, the displacement of intensities; focus on situations, on figures and on fiction.

Doing and undoing, erecting and demolishing, evolving and crawfishing, are the contradictory principles from where our performance shall emerge."

Artistic Team

Portuguese- based choreographer Marlene Monteiro Freitas (originally from Cape Verde), was invited by Ohad Naharin, the artistic director and house choreographer of Batsheva Dance Company, Tel-Aviv, to create for the first time a full-length piece, world premiere, with the Batsheva dancers, forming altogether a collaboration of artists from 10 nationalities. Naharin: "Marlene is one of the most fascinating choreographers I've met in years. Her work is stirring and unique, and I'm thrilled that she's agreed to come and create for us". The artistic team involves the German Andreas Merk, a dance professional and Marlene's assistant for many years, the French light and space designer Yannick Fouassier, and Portuguese architect and researcher João Francisco Figueira. This team will be boosted creatively by rehearsal directors Luc Jacobs and Yaniv Nagar, and the 18 brilliant dancers of Bathseva, coming from 8 nationalities, of whom many already created short pieces.