Laurent Chétouane (FR)

Improvisation of Je(u)

Is it possible to experience the body and movement simultaneously in dance so that the movement no longer oppresses the body, hides it, even denies it in order to achieve a two-dimensional visual aesthetic? But instead the opposite, to give it back its three-dimensionality, its weight, its materiality, so that the body can be experienced by both the dancers and the audience at the same time? In collaboration with the Swedish dancer Mikael Marklund, with the improvisation of Je(u), Laurent Chétouane has developed a game with oneself in one’s own foreignness, a serious game with the fall from verticality and perhaps a melancholy game with the self in the mirror on the floor: an experience of time.

Laurent Chétouane is a world renowned dancer, director and choreographer born in France. In 2008, Chétouane won the North Rhine-Westphalia Prize for Young Artists and was also awarded the RUHR.2008 Wild Card for his piece Tanzstück # 1: Bildbeschreibung von Heiner Müller. His work has been shown at numerous festivals, including
the Ruhrtriennale, the Spider Festival 2016 in Ljubljana, the Venice Biennale, Tanzplattform 2014 in Hamburg and at the Festival d’Avignon.

The pieces Je(u) by Laurent Chétouane and Gula by Vincent Sekwati Koko Mantsoe will be presented for the first time together at NORDWIND and can be seen as a reflection of the different dance traditions in Africa and Europe.