Black Lights

Mathilde Monnier

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Live performance

Le Grand Sud, Lille
1h10
Pass Latitudes

“Something is not right, there’s something which is not coming through.” Inspired by the series H24, Black Lights is a piece/ manifesto which exposes, powerfully and without flinching, the chilling spectre of patriarchal violences.

Shown on the arte television channel in 2021, the series H24 showed the daily violence inflicted upon women, based on texts by 24 female writers of different nationalities and generations. In Black Lights, the choreographer Mathilde Monnier invites 8 actresses and dancers to help bring some of these stories to the stage. Written in the first person, inspired by facts and unfortunately universal experiences, these intimate, political stories are performed with striking power by the actresses and dancers. Their voices are compelling, their bodies stiffen in resistance, assaulted or glorious, painful or rebellious. They refuse to hide the evidence of brutality and humiliation they have experienced daily, they cry out how important it is to speak out, while leaving room for resilience and fighting back.

Accessibility infos :

High sound level
Presence of smoke
Sudden changes of lighting might occur

This performance mentions acts of gender-based and sexual violence which can be difficult to hear.

With the support of Lieux Culturels Pluridisciplinaires de la Ville de Lille

Biography(s)

Mathilde Monnier has become a reference in the the French and international contemporary dance scene. From one play to another, she defies all expectations by constantly presenting a renewed work.
Her nomination at the head of the Centre chorégraphique de Montpellier Languedoc-Roussillon in 1994 initiates a series of collaborations with diverse artistic fields figures (Jean-Luc Nancy, Katerine, Christine Angot, La Ribot, Heiner Goebbels…).
She has created more than 40 choreographic pieces, presented on the international stages of the festival d’Avignon at the Théâtre de la Ville de Paris, but also all the way to New York, Vienna, Berlin, London. She has received several prizes for her work (prix Ministère de la culture, Grand Prix SACD).
After having directed the CND Centre national de la danse in Paris, Mathilde Monnier has retaken her journey as a producer with several plays, including Please Please Please (2019) in collaboration with La Ribot & Tiago Rodiguez, Records (2021) and Black Lights (2023).
Since 2020, Mathilde Monnier is in residency with her own company at la Halle Tropisme in Montpellier.

Credits

From Arte’s TV series “H24”, produced by Valérie Urrea and Nathalie Masduraud
Choreography, stage director: Mathilde Monnier
Dramaturgy: Stéphane Bouquet
Scenography: Annie Tolleter with l’atelier Martine Andrée, Halle Tropisme
Light design: Éric Wurtz
Sound design: Nicolas Houssin, Olivier Renouf
Costumes: Laurence Alquier
with Isabel Abreu, Aïda Ben Hassine, Kaïsha Essiane, Lucia García Pulles, Mai-Júli Machado Nhapulo, Carolina Passos Sousa, Jone San Martin Astigarraga, Ophélie Ségala

Production : Otto Productions
Supported by the Hermès enterprise foundation.
Coproduction : Festival Montpellier Danse 2023, Cie MM, Le Quartz – Scène nationale de Brest, Le Parvis – Scène nationale Tarbes Pyrénées, Théâtre Garonne, scène européenne, TPR – Centre-Neuchâtelois des arts vivants & ADN – Danse Neuchâtel, La Chaux-de-Fonds