LE SACRE DU PRINTEMPS
The French performer Xavier Le Roy is a bogus orchestra maestro conducting the mythical music of Sacre du printemps. Fearless, effective and laced with humour.
With a light touch and a raised eyebrow, the dancer conveys the finesse of a pianissimo and then, with spirited movement and fiery gaze, lets a crescendo swell until it explodes. Alone onstage with the audience acting as the orchestra, he defuses drama with humour and irreverence. From fits of passion to spells of calm, from rotating hips to swinging legs, he so fully and physically embraces and personifies the music that it becomes an object between his fingers, blood that flows in his veins. And it is impossible to say whether it is the music or the dance that calls the shots.
The French performer Xavier Le Roy offers his body to music in a vivid version of Sacre du printemps, a monumental work in the history of art whose centennial is being celebrated at the FTA. Slipping into the skin of the maestro of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, he dismantles the musical structure of Stravinsky’s mythical score, bringing the audience in for a good close look.
PRODUCED BY IN SITU PRODUCTIONS + LE KWATT
CONCEIVED AND PERFORMED BYXAVIER LE ROY
MUSIC IGOR STRAVINSKY
SOUND DESIGN PETER BOEHM
RECORDING BERLINER PHILHARMONIKER
CONDUCTED BY SIR SIMON RATTLE
COLLABORATORS BOJANA CVEJIC + BERNO POLZER
MANAGEMENT VINCENT CAVAROC – ILLUSION & MACADAM (MONTPELLIER)
PHOTO VINCENT CAVAROC
COPRODUCTION CENTRE CHORÉGRAPHIQUE NATIONAL DE MONTPELLIER LANGUEDOC-ROUSSILLON + TANZ IM AUGUST – INTERNATIONALES TANZFEST 2007 (BERLIN) + PACT ZOLLVEREIN CHOREOGRAPHISCHES ZENTRUM NRW (ESSEN) CREATIVE RESIDENCY LES SUBSISTANCES (LYON)
PRESENTED IN ASSOCIATION WITH AGORA DE LA DANSE
WITH THE SUPPORT OF SERVICE DE COOPÉRATION ET D’ACTION CULTURELLE DU CONSULAT GÉNÉRAL DE FRANCE À QUÉBEC + INSTITUT FRANÇAIS
WRITTEN BY FABIENNE CABADO
TRANSLATED BY NEIL KROETSCH
PREMIERED AT LES SUBSISTANCES, LYON, JUNE 27, 2007
XAVIER LE ROY (MONTPELLIER)
Movement Beyond Dance
Born in 1963, Xavier Le Roy suddenly gave up a fledgling career in biology at age 27 in favour of dance. He studied in Montpellier and Paris, and spent the 1990s in France and Germany on a series of wide-ranging collaborations and shows that he conceived as experiences to be shared. From 1996 to 2003 he was artist in residence at the Podewil and at TanzWerkstatt in Berlin. Plunging into the new forms of choreography of the 1990s, he was one of the first to express interest in movement beyond dance, contriving to deconstruct forms and performance. His work ranged from unlikely metamorphoses (Self Unfinished, 1998), to the tale of his professional career (Produit de circonstances, 1999), how a piece came to be (Produit d’autres circonstances, 2009), orchestra as dance (Mouvements für Lachenmann, 2005) and the dance of the maestro in Le sacre du printemps, created in 2007 when he was associate artist with the Centre national chorégraphique de Montpellier.
Edition 2013
Performances
- Mon27May
- Tue28May
- Wed29May
