Boris Charmatz
+ More info- Live performance
- Couvent des dominicains, Lille
- 1h
- Pass Latitudes
SOMNOLE
An intense solo, accompanied by a continuous breath: Boris Charmatz offers us a moment suspended in time, in the silent green oasis of the garden of the Dominican Convent.
This work came out of a long hibernation during the Covid lockdown of 2020. Well known as a great choreographer of group works and collective dances, Boris Charmatz returns with SOMNOLE to the purest, most intimate form, the solo, with movements insinuating that in-between time, the half-consciousness that comes just before falling asleep. While dancing, he “whistles,” dream-like, almost familiar melodies. From Vivaldi to Billie Eilish, the breaths combines with sleepwalking movements, a bridge between the mental and the physical world. For a special version at Latitudes Contemporaines, this solo will take place outside in a garden. Between the hundred-year-old trees of the Convent garden, SOMNOLE invites us to share the fragility of a waking dream.
Biography(s)
Boris Charmatz is a dancer, choreographer and creator of experimental projects such as the ephemeral school Bocal, the Musée de la danse and Terrain. Keen to connect his own questions to the state of contemporary bodies, he seeks dance in unusual places, and designs hybrid shows and formats which combine creation and repertoire, theory and transmission, in a wide variety of spaces. From 2009 to 2018, Boris Charmatz was the director of Musée de la danse / Centre chorégraphique national de Rennes et de Bretagne. In January 2019, he launched Terrain, a structure based in Région Hauts-de-France, developing a project of choreographic experiments without walls or roofs, inserted into the city and public space. After studying at the Paris Opera Ballet School and the Lyon Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse, he co-wrote his first piece with Dimitri Chamblas in 1993, À bras-le-corps. He then created several landmark works, including Aatt enen tionon (1996), enfant (2011) created for the Cour d’honneur at the Festival d’Avignon, 10000 gestes (2017) and SOMNOLE (2021). A bras-le-corps and 20 danseurs pour le XXe siècle (2012) have entered the repertoire of the Paris Opera Ballet. Boris Charmatz is the author of several books (Entretenir, 2003, co-written with Isabelle Launay; Je suis une école, 2009), alongside working as a performer and improviser with various artists (among whom Odile Duboc, Médéric Collignon, Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker and Tino Sehgal). His work is shown around the world, and has been the subject of retrospectives at MoMA (Museum of Modern Art, New York) and Tate Modern (London). As part of the Portrait dedicated to his work by the Festival d’Automne à Paris, he created in 2021 La Ronde in the Nave of the Grand Palais before it was closed for renovation, and Happening Tempête for the opening of the Grand Palais Éphémère. The same year, he opened the Manchester International Festival with Sea Change. In August 2022, Boris Charmatz became the new director of Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch. Together with Terrain, he builds a new artistic project between Germany and France, dedicated to the joint development of his choreographic work and Pina Bausch’s repertoire. He presented several events in the public space in Wuppertal, including Wundertal/Sonnborner Strasse in a street (2023), and CERCLES on a football field (2024). In September 2023, he created his first piece with the Ensemble, Liberté Cathédrale. In 2024, he was the Artiste Complice of the 78th Festival d’Avignon, where he presented CERCLES, a public workshop for 200 participants, an outdoor version of Liberté Cathédrale, as well as Forever (Immersion dans Café Müller de Pina Bausch).
Credits
choreography and interpretation Boris Charmatz
choreographic assistant Magali Caillet Gajan
lights Yves Godin
costume collaboration Marion Regnier
vocal work Dalila Khatir
with the advice of Bertrand Causse and Médéric Collignon
sound materials inspired by J.S. Bach, A. Vivaldi, B. Eilish, The Pink Panther, J. Kosma, E. Morricone, birdsongs, G.F. Haendel, Stormy Weather… Full list on borischarmatz.org
general stage manager Fabrice Le Fur
light technician Germain Fourvel
deputy director Terrain Hélène Joly
direction of productions Lucas Chardon, Martina Hochmuth
production managers Briac Geffrault, Lola Serre
co-production Opéra de Lille – Théâtre Lyrique d’Intérêt National, le phénix – scène nationale de Valenciennes – pôle européen de création, Bonlieu – scène nationale d’Annecy, Charleroi Danse – Centre chorégraphique de Wallonie- Bruxelles (Belgique), Festival d’Automne à Paris, Festival de Marseille, Teatro Municipal do Porto, Helsinki Festival, Scène nationale d’Orléans, MC93 – Maison de la Culture de Seine-Saint-Denis (Bobigny), Pavillon ADC (Genève)
with the support of Lafayette Anticipations – Fondation d’entreprise Galeries Lafayette, in the framework of the program Atelier en résidence
with the participation of the Jeune théâtre national
thanks to Alban Moraud, Mette Ingvartsen, Iris Ingvartsen Charmatz, Xenia Ingvartsen Charmatz, Florentine Busson
Since August 2022, Boris Charmatz is the new director of Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch, to launch, with Terrain, a new project between Germany and France.
production and distribution Terrain with the support of Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels
SOMNOLE was awarded the prize for best choreographic performance by the Syndical de la Critique (2022).
