ASPHALTE
PIERRE RIGAL (FRANCE)
24 sept (thu) 20:00, National Opera and Ballet
Asphalte scoops big, raw and real chunks of street life and dumps them right on stage. Five hip hop dancers take on from there to replicate the tales and legends of the city – against a giant block of light, in a comics-like sequence, they project, turn upside-down and shake all popular urban myths, cliches and stereotypes. The only weapons they have are humor, irony, cynicism, poetry and grace. In a precise-to-the-millimeter choreography, the young and restless street kids dance their eternal stories of love, war, revolutions, glory, passion, beauty…
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Pierre Rigal started dancing at 29 quite by chance. Before that he was a promising international athelete in 400-meter hurdles, but he actually studied mathematics and economics in Barcelona and cinema in Toulouse. Upon graduation he started directing documentaries and music videos, got injured in the meantime and had to put a stop to his sports career. For no apparent reason he chose contemporary dance as a substitute for sports. His true inspiration came from Belgian choreographer Wim Vandekeybus and Bosnian director Mladen Materic who were combining theater, dance and technology in their work. 2002 saw Rigal already as professional dancer in the company of Swiss choreographer Gilles Jobin. Two years later in Toulouse he founded his own Compagnie Dernière Minute to further explore the intersection between dance and high technology.
His spectacles are typically staged on the border of dance, theater, circus, installation and visual art, but he usually sticks to the definition of “theater dance”. Asphalte is a fine example of Rigal’s approach where all elements – light, sound, sets – move together with the dancers to create a stunning choreographic composition.
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Asphalte
dance: Mathieu Hernandez, Hervé Kanda, Yoann Nirennold, Camille Regneault, Julien Saint-Maximin
conception, choreography, lights: Pierre Rigal
artistc assistant, costumes: Mélanie Chartreux
set builder, lights: Frédéric Stoll
music : Julien Lepreux
co-production: Compagnie Dernière Minute, Suresnes Cités danse 2009 and TGP – CDN de Saint-Denis
created: 2009
Compagnie Dernière Minute is supported by Fondation BNP Paribas for its project development.
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