par Terre / Anne Nguyen Dance Company Underdogs
Performance
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Underdogs are those who are expected to lose, never a safe bet. They're the ones who meld seamlessly with the urban landscape, on whom our gaze settles but never dares to linger.
In this choreographic piece, my aim is to observe the way in which our bodies are shot through with urban imagery and the traces this leaves behind. What influences do we appropriate from, with what characters do we identify to build our personalities, our body states? Hip-hop dance, the urban dance form par excellence, is fuelled by everything that challenges the norms. The dancer is keen on detecting any sign of a transgression and to transform it into a creative gesture.
When I watch a dancer perform, I am moved by these interiorised signs. For hip-hop dance draws its inspiration from the postures, gestures and energies of characters found in the clubs and in the working-class neighbourhoods of 1970s America. Throughout this performance, I want the dancers to explore the very source of their gestural actions through their dance: to which symbols, to which social markers does it connect? How do the dancers relate personally and emotionally to their own dance’s etymology? How deeply is the explosive energy of their bodies rooted in rebellion, or the rebelliousness of popular movements fighting for the underdogs, for the outcasts of our society?
For this project, I envisage three dancers, one woman and two men, attempting to stick together. Through their dance, they embody an urban imagery that is on occasion provocative, sometimes transgressive, occasionally oppressive, at times liberating. By deep diving into different states of being, they explore the collective unconscious that unites them and embark upon a deep process of introspection. Against a backdrop of soul music evocative of the political climate in 1970s America, they proudly confront the invisible mass of their urban heritage. Through the gaze of the other and by coming face-to-face with their own inner antagonisms, the three dancers highlight the deep bonds that unite them, as well as the choices that make them individuals with fully-fledged personalities.
Choreography Anne Nguyen
Dancers Sonia Bel Hadj Brahim, Arnaud Duprat, Pascal Luce
Lighting design Ydir Acef
Music transitions (creation) Sébastien Lété
Coproductions L’Auditorium Seynod; Théâtre de Chevilly-Larue
With the support of Centre d’Art et de Culture de Meudon; Le CENTQUATRE-PARIS; Mairie de La Courneuve - Houdremont centre culturel; Centre culturel l’Imprévu de Saint-Ouen-l’Aumône; CND Centre national de la danse - provision of studio ; Etablissement public du Palais de la Porte Dorée
The par Terre Dance Company is funded by l’Aide pluriannuelle du Ministère de la Culture / DRAC Île-de-France, la Région Île-de-France for “Permanence Artistique et Culturelle” and l’Aide au fonctionnement du Département du Val-de-Marne.
The par Terre / Anne Nguyen Dance Company is an associate artist to Centre culturel l’Imprévu de Saint-Ouen-l’Aumône in 2021/2022, to L’Auditorium Seynod (74) and to the Centre d’Art et de Culture de Meudon (92) for 2021/2022 and 2022/2023.
Tickets
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