ALEXANDRE

“In the beginning, a voice: the recording of a timbre, a breath, like the appearance of a radical otherness. In the beginning, a language: a rhythm, a phrasing, a repetition, meaning that slips away. From this voice arises a series of questions relating to language. What can dance do with a voice: try to approach the world it transports to the edge of meaning, or redeploy a movement in the depths of its intensities, its frictions in order to re-constitute its own system of sensation and interpretation?

At the end of a journey with the physical, linguistic or anthropological questions raised by this recording of a male rite of passage, Pol Pi produced a piece - making the name Alexandre the password to a possible transformation. As in his previous creation, Ecce (H)omo, the starting material inscribes the coordinates of a new sensitive territory.

In ALEXANDRE, Pol Pi forms a knot, an intertwining which wraps a reflection on the construction of the same and of difference. Between his body, his voice and his imaginary doubles, a ritual navigates between the close and the distant, the fusion and the cut, the dream and the reality, the masculine and the feminine. »
Gilles Amavi for the CN D

« Ãnéwa, ãhã ta wató dzéwa ãhã ta wanhib a'uwé Alexandre weiwi datói uhã, emariwa õhõ madzéma irówé ».

This is how it starts. More than a language whose meaning entirely escapes me, a rhythm, a pulse, an urgency too. What hides behind these sharp and well-articulated words?

A man speaks, announces, it seems important. His voice is strongly punctuated by many consonants. By words that insist in unexpected repetitions too. It is the eldest man of the Xavante Belém tribe, I would later discover, speaking of a rite of passage intended exclusively for men. Within this language, foreign to me, only one word was understandable for a Portuguese-speaking Brazilian like me: “Alexandre”.


A project by and with : Pol Pi
In collaboration with:
Sound creation and dramaturgical accompaniment: Gilles Amalvi
Costumes and artistic collaboration: Rachel Garcia
Light and space creation: Florian Leduc
Artistic collaboration: Pauline L. Boulba
Accompaniment in somatic practices: Violeta Salvatierra
Performer during the creative process: Sorour Darabi

Production : NO DRAMA
Executive production : Latitudes Prod-Lille / Louis Eonnet
Administration : Adèle Devos
Communication : Louise Marion – Astrid Herbron

Coproductions : Rencontres chorégraphiques internationales de Seine-Saint-Denis, Centre national de la danse (CND), Festival Montpellier Danse 2018, Centre chorégraphique national de Caen en Normandie direction Alban RICHARD dans le cadre de « l’Accueil-Studio », CCNO Centre chorégraphique national d’Orléans dans le cadre de l’accueil studio 2018, La Maison CDCN – Uzès Gard Occitanie, La Place de la Danse – CDCN Toulouse-Occitanie, Le Vivat Armentières, Charleroi danse

This project has benefited from « Aide au projet » of the DRAC Île-de-France – Ministry of Culture and Communication and has the support of Arcadi.

With the support of PACT Zollverein, Montévidéo – Créations contemporaines – Atelier de Fabrique Artistique, les Laboratoires d’Aubervilliers, ICI – centre chorégraphique national de Montpellier – Occitanie – Direction Christian Rizzo, and the FONDOC. With the support of Montpellier Danse 2018, résidence de création à l’Agora – cité internationale de la danse, with the help of Fondation BNP Paribas.

Photos and Teaser: ©Morgad Le Naour