La forêt ébouriffée - Compagnie Christian et François Ben Aïm

La forêt ébouriffée
Creation 2013
au 13.06.14
La forêt ébouriffée
From the book La forêt de Racine of Mélusine Thiry
Audience: From 6 years
Running time: 45 mins
Choreography and set design
Christian and François Ben Aïm
Performance
Grégoire Puren or Lee Davern, Gill Viandier or Vincent Delétang
Videos
Mélusine Thiry
Music
Jean-Baptiste Sabiani
Sauf version instrumentale de Mourir à deux de Maël
Lights
Laurent Patissier
Costumes
Dulcie Best
Sound and video direction
Luc Béril or Sébastien Teulié
Light direction
Laurent Patissier or Patrice Pépin
Actor film
Aurélie Berland
Voice-over
Fanny Eidel – Biju-Duval, Christian Ben Aïm
Production: CFB 451
Coproductions: Espace 1789 à Saint-Ouen, CCN de Roubaix Nord-Pas de Calais - Carolyn Carlson, Le Théâtre
de Rungis
Support: Atelier de Paris – Carolyn Carlson
Choreographic residency: Vélo Théâtre – Apt
Piece created during the choreographers’ residency at Espace 1789 with the support of the Seine-Saint-Denis
Departmental Council.
ArTistic intentions
One day when he awoke, Racine felt different. A forest had grown inside his head.
Panicking, he ran away.
In the street, every window looked at him. As he ran, he triggered an extraordinary phenomenon, because wherever he passed the ground became covered with earth, grasses, flowers and ferns. Trees grew on the roofs, and
roots sprouted from the walls. Nature entered the houses.
They were overgrown with branches, leaves and bark.
The village was completely engulfed until it totally disappeared in the forest.
Excerpt from La forêt de Racine by Mélusine Thiry
A PIECE FOR YOUNG AUDIENCES IN RESONANCE WITH THE EVOLUTION OF THE COMPANY
Christian and François Ben Aïm were invited to create a piece for young audiences as part of their residency at
Espace 1789 in Saint-Ouen. Respond to an artistic proposal is always a challenge. Projecting new ideas and be surprised by the directions and universe they generate is often a source of enrichment and discovery in their creative
process.
If the creation of a piece for young audiences is a first time in the work of the choreographers, the majority of their
work have been presented for school sessions as well: Un homme en marche, Carcasse un oeil pour deux,You’re
a bird, now ! , Valse en trois temps , and L’Ogresse des archives et son chien.
Tell a story without minimizing the significant impact of body and choreography. This choreography seeks out
children from age 6 to 10, which will allow to question more specific concepts of our approach, like the mode of
narration or the place of abstraction.
Christian & François Ben Aïm and Mélusine Thiry: a meeting of imaginations
When they began developing the project, the choreographers invited author and
illustrator Mélusine Thiry, a collaborator with the company, to write a story that
would provide the central theme for the piece. The result was La forêt de Racine,
written and illustrated by Thiry. The book has since been co-published by the company and the author, and is the literary accompaniment to the piece.
© Mélusine Thiry
Mélusine Thiry also created the video projections for this project. She began working
with the company as a videographer in 2007 (You’re a bird, now!, Résistance au droit,
L’Ogresse des archives et son chien), infusing the choreographers’ creations with her
dreamlike style and artistic sensibility.
Illustration of La forêt de Racine
Thematics
After L’ogresse des archives et son chien, a piece inspired by
fairy tales for nine performers combining circus techniques,
dance and music, Christian et François Ben Aïm continue to
explore the world of fairy tales and children’s stories, which
offer the perfect vehicle for their unique imaginations.
© Estelle Brugerolles
In La forêt ébouriffée, the heroe, Racine, is not like other
little boys, no one has noticed that a forest has grown inside
his head. Fleeing from a hostile grandmother and traumatic
daily life, he runs into it to take refuge. It is in this encroaching
forest, which changes with his emotions, that the little boy
sets off on the most surprising adventures, gradually tracing a
path that leads him back to himself.
The choreographers depict childhood and the pleasures and pains of growing up with charm and sensitivity.
The forest represents retreat and escape, danger and wonders, and as soon as night falls it feeds our imaginations.
For Racine, it becomes an ambiguous place that he must discover and conquer in order to grow up and know
himself better.
THE IMAGE AS A POETIC EXTENSION OF THE DANCERS’ BODIES
The scenography creates a sense of depth between the images
and the bodies in motion, causing confusion between dream
and reality. The viewers thus embark on a poetic journey to a
strange world in which the beings imagined by the little boy,
the fantasy setting, and the dancers’ bodies all belong to the
same universe.
© Patrick Berger
Projected onto two screens that span the whole stage, the videos created by Mélusine Thiry play a leading role in this new
project. Throughout the piece, they provide a window onto
the little boy’s fervent imagination.
In this piece, the choreographers develop a form of narrative while placing the sensory dimension of the dancers’
bodies at the heart of the viewers’ experience. The dance reflects the different emotional and physical states
experienced by Racine, either embodied or transposed, and invites the young audience to identify and physically
empathise with the boy so that they can take part in his epic journey.
Exhibition Autour des forêts
In order to continue this amazing journey after the performance, Mélusine Thiry has also created an exhibition
called Autour des forêts: a magical world of shadows and light inhabited by moving silhouettes inspired by the
book and the dance piece.
Halfway between the book and the dance piece, the exhibition is a magical world of shadows of light inhabited by
moving silhouettes inspired by the book and the dance piece. Exploring media transparency, appearances / disappearances, transformations and overlays of shadows, the images created will be on the movable rotary engines.
The exhibition will be presented in libraries or theaters.
christian and françois Ben Aïm
A company
The Ben Aïm brothers are all of this, and more: a fifteen-year partnership that has
produced some twenty creations, strengthened by artistic collaborations from all
backgrounds. Their story reads like a ploughed furrow, dug with the expertise of
field workers liaising with performance spaces and communities. In the past three
years, they have created some 350 shows that have helped them to establish an
authentic company identity.
© DR
Two choreographer-dancers
After studying dance, physical theatre and circus skills, they each set out to
develop their performing careers independently in Canada and France. Once
reunited, they laid the foundations for their company, which functions around
the fraternal dynamic created by François and Christian: a meeting of minds and
instincts, they continually bounce ideas off each other to produce artistic projects
in constant evolution.
© DR
Standout pieces
In 1996, the brothers created their cornerstone piece: A l’abri du regard des
hommes, avant d’aller mourir ailleurs, a hybrid performance in which dancers and
actors share and feed off each other’s raw physical energy. La Frontera and Ne
vous fiez pas au titre, il peut encore changer followed in the same vein, showcasing a style of dance that blends subtle humour with elements of surprise. Other
signature pieces include the diptych inspired by the work of Bernard-Marie Koltès,
Carcasses, un œil pour deux and En plein cœur, whose original scenography
and music resonate with the playwright’s texts. Among their latest productions,
L’Ogresse des archives et son chien plays fully on the intersection of different
disciplines, while Valse en trois temps flirts with minimalism. The brothers have
also created in situ works on location, such as the monumental Mangrove Groove
in China, and the ‘all-terrain’ piece Karma performed throughout the Pas-deCalais region.
Partner venues
This path has been possible thanks to the loyal support of numerous performance spaces, including municipal theatres (the Théâtre de Vanves, Théâtre Louis
Aragon de Tremblay-en-France, and the Théâtre de la Madeleine de Troyes, with
whom they partnered for six years), national theatres (Mâcon, Aubusson), Centres
Chorégraphiques Nationaux (Roubaix, Orléans, Créteil), and L’Espace 1789 in
Saint-Ouen.
The company’s development is characterised by open-mindedness, exemplified by
intimate solos that open up towards large-scale pieces, a physical style of writing that
engages with cross-disciplinary art forms, and connections that lead to partnerships
both within their local communities and abroad. It is also characterised by passion,
which is always reignited when they push artistic and geographic boundaries.
Background
1996
After returning from Quebec, Christian and François Ben Aïm began to research and develop original
choreographies that combine dance and theatre. They created their first pieces during their time with the
Eclats d’Art company.
1997
A l’abri du regard des hommes, avant d’aller mourir ailleurs (first creation) - 5 performers / Festival
Avignon Off 1998
1998
L’Homme Rapaillé - 5 performers
1999
Un homme en marche - 5 performers / Festival Avignon Off 2001
2000
Creation dof the company CFB 451
2001
La Frontera - 5 performers
Ô mon frère ! - 3 performers / Festival Avignon Off 2011
2003
Ne vous fiez pas au titre, il peut encore changer – 3 performers
2004
Carcasses, un œil pour deux - 2 performers
2004-2006 Residency at Micadanses / Paris
2006
En plein cœur - 9 performers
Les quatres saisons de l’amour - 35 perfomers / Gala dinner for Amway – China
2006-2009 Residency of 3 years at the Théâtre de La Madeleine scène conventionée de Troyes
2007
You’re a bird, now ! - Solo
2007-2008 Residency Territoire(s) de la danse au Théâtre Louis Aragon – Tremblay-en-France
2008
Louves - Solo
Amor Fati Fati Amor - 6 performers
2009-2012
Artistes associés au théâtre de La Madeleine - Scène conventionnée de Troyes, avec l’aide de la Région
Champagne-Ardenne
2010
Valse en trois temps - 4 performers / Festival Avignon Off 2011
Résistance au droit - 4 performers
2011-2012
Residency at l’Espace 1789 de Saint-Ouen
2011
L’Ogresse des archives et son chien - 9 performers (dancers, musicians and artists circus)
Mangrove groove, China - 50 performers / Publicis Event - Shenzhen, Chine.
2012
L’orée des visages (short form) - 4 performers / Collaboration with the company Pseudonymo
2013
Karma - 3 performers / Commissioned by the CCN de Roubaix - Carolyn Carlson
La forêt ébouriffée - 2 performers / Création jfor young audience (from 7 years)
L’orée des visages (long form) - 4 performers/ Collaboration with the company Pseudonymo
These pieces have been performed in successive seasons and remain in the company’s repertoire.
biographies
performance: Grégoire Puren
The son of an actor, Grégoire Puren started performing for audiences from a very early
age, and followed a complementary path by entering the Annie Fratellini circus school
followed by Le Samovar theatre school in Paris. His early projects culminated in street
theatre and company productions, in which he applied his multidisciplinary training in
commedia dell’arte, clowning, acrobatics, Chinese pole and physical theatre, collaborating with Claire Heggen, Amy Atthab, Pina Blankevort, Franck Dinet, and the Malabar,
Rasposo and Les Sangles companies. Since then he has continued to explore contemporary forms of artistic expression and the world of choreography by regularly attending workshops and courses with Catherine Dubois, Jordi Vidal and Jackie Taffanel,
among others. He started working with Christian and François Ben Aïm in 2010, performing in L’Ogresse des archives et son chien (2011) .
performance: Gill Viandier
After graduating with a degree in architecture in 1997, Gill Viandier decided to explore the
world of contemporary dance, training mainly at the Centre Chorégraphique National
(CCN) of Rennes with Catherine Diverrès, and at the CCN of Montpellier with Mathilde
Monnier. In 1999 he joined Jackie Taffanel’s company, and since 2003 he has worked with
the companies of Michèle Murray, Didier Théron, Hélène Cathala, Emmanuelle Vo-Dinh,
Georges Appaix, Christophe Haleb and Philippe Saire. Gill Viandier is also interested in
visual art and set design. He made his first theatre set design in 2007, and created public
space performance installations with the site-specific project #Number#. As a musician,
he has participated in lyrical and improvised projects in Denis Tricot’s L’Orgue de bois. In
2009 he moved to Berlin, where he has worked with Willi Dorner, William Forsythe and
Christoph Winkler, along with Hans Tuerlings in the Netherlands. He has collaborated with
Christian and François Ben Aïm in the pieces L’Ogresse des archives et son chien (2011).
Alterning with
performance: Lee Davern
Born in Oxford, Lee Davern began training as a professional dancer when he was 20 years
old, at the Northern School of Contemporary Dance in the UK. He started his performing career with the Dance Theater of Ireland, the Wired Aerial Theater, Tom Dale and
Protein companies. In 2007 he collaborated with the Icelandic company Himherandit
Productions on a piece that was presented at the Reykjavik Dance Festival, then worked
with the Swiss company Alias led by Guilherme Botelho. In 2009 he joined the Jasmin
Vardimon company and the Royal Opera House in the UK, before collaborating with
DV8 Physical Theater on two productions and international tours. In 2012 he moved to
Paris, where he has worked with the Ôma-Belles Embardées company on Animal Social
(2011), the choreographer Ingrid Florin in Au nom du père (2013), and the choreographer
Kim Brandstrup in the opera Médée (2012).
performance: Vincent Delétang
After graduating with a degree in English and obtaining his postgraduate certificate in
education, Vincent Delétang trained in dance at the Conservatoire National de Région
de Paris before studying at the Centre National de Danse Contemporaine (CNDC) of
Angers under Emmanuelle Huynh. In 2008 he performed with the Paco Dècina company, and since 2010 he has collaborated on a number of productions with Carolyn Carlson, for whom he has worked as assistant choreographer and performer in two editions
of the Dansewindows project. He has also collaborated with Camille Ollagnier on his
project Les Garçons Sauvages, in which he performed the solo Elseneur. He developed
his own choreographic writing in the collective DesiDelà, notably creating A deux dans
une manche with Virginie Quigneaux. The holder of a State Diploma and a Master’s
degree in Culture and Communication, he has developed numerous educational and
creative projects for a range of different non-professional groups (schools, hospitals,
and associations).
vidEos: Mélusine Thiry
Mélusine Thiry trained as an audiovisual artist and now works in the performing arts
sector as a videographer. She also creates visual effects and lighting props for musical
and concerts, children’s shows and dance performances. As an author and illustrator,
she has published children’s books since 2008. She has worked as a videographer and/or
author on several creatons by the Christian et François Ben Aïm company: You’re a bird,
now! (2009) Résistance au droit (2010), L’Ogresse des archives et son chien (2011) and La
Forêt ébouriffée (2013).
costumes: Dulcie Best
A graduate of the Welsh College of Music and Drama, Dulcie Best has been a professional costume designer and visual artist since 1990. She has designed the costumes for
international events such as the opening ceremony of the Euro 2008 football championship and the 2004 Paralympic Games in Athens. In addition to these major productions, she pursues her creative passion by working in the performing arts. She first met
Christian and François Ben Aïm in 2006 at a choreographic event featuring 35 artists,
and has since designed and made the costumes for a number of their pieces: Louves
(2008), L’ogresse des archives et son chien (2011) and La forêt ébouriffée (2013).
lights: Laurent Patissier
After an eclectic early career in special events and television, followed by 15 years in the
lighting industry (working on shows, national and international tours), Laurent Patissier
decided to focus on lighting design for the performing arts. He has worked as a lighting
designer on theatre productions, dance performances, puppet shows, music concerts
and exhibitions, and has collaborated with a roll-call of performing artists and companies. He recently designed the lighting for the contemporary dance pieces Rock ’n’
Roll Suicide by Die Donau (Andréa Sitter) and Il Progetto Indispensabile by La Ventura
company (Ana Ventura); the Hip Hop dance duo Phorm (David Colas and Santiago); the
play La Permanence des Choses, un Essai sur l’Inquiétude by the Association Perspective Nevski (Sandrine Roche); and the puppet show Avis de Messe Marionettique by the
Contre Ciel company (Luc Laporte).
Laurent Patissier first worked with the Christian et François Ben Aïm company in 1998 on
L’homme rapaillé, and since 2004 has designed the lighting for all of their pieces.
music: Jean-Baptiste Sabiani
Jean-Baptiste Sabiani studied at the Centre d’Information Musicale (CIM) before following a five-year programme at the
American School of Modern Music from 1990 to 1995, specialising in piano. During his career he has written, recorded and
arranged compositions in the fields of jazz, theatre and film. Since 2010, he has composed and/or arranged the musical
scores for all of the productions written by Christian and François Ben Aïm: Résistance au droit (2010), Valse en trois temps
(2010), L’ogresse des archives et son chien (2011), Karma (2013), and La forêt ébouriffée (2013).
press
March 2013
CFB 451 dance company presents its first piece especially created for young audiences.
For more than twelve years, Christian and François Ben Aïm have been developing their own distinct style of
choreography that combines a powerful energy with a stage presence that often brings their pieces closer to
‘dance-theatre’; highly evocative, they develop a form of narrative while placing the sensory dimension of the
dancers’ bodies at the heart of the viewers’ experience. This signature style makes their work accessible to all
audiences, including the youngest viewers, and so it was a natural progression for them to create a work specifically for six- to ten-year-olds in 2013. The video maker Mélusine Thiry, a long-time collaborator with the company and also a children’s book author, has contributed to the project by creating images designed to blur the
boundaries between dream and reality. The subject is the world of the forest and the relationship we create with
it: a space that is both natural and symbolic, attractive and dangerous.
Marie Chavanieux
31 March 2013
[...] With relatively few resources (the video, made by the author herself, is far from being a Spielberg-style mega-production!), but a lot of ideas – choreographic, cinemat(ograph)ic, acrobatic, scenographic –, the effective
support of a soundtrack composed by Jean-Baptiste Sabiani, the use of a plot illustrated by imagery that dates
back to the days of the magic lantern projected onto two transparent screens and, at the start of the production,
by a Chinese shadow and light show that predates cinematography, CFB 451’s duo put on an enjoyable show
(something that’s worth appreciating nowadays) as well as showing us a good portion of their poetic universe.
It must be said that they rely on two very talented performers, Grégoire Puren and Gill Viandier. The former is
a remarkable circus artist, and the latter, who spends much of the show in the background probably because of
his large physique, is an exceptional dancer. In the second half the male duo is complemented by the ingenious
appearance, on video, of Aurélie Berland, a Lilliputian aerial acrobat who does a great job of playing her role of
bunny girl.
The solos and pas-de-deux (or pas-de-trois with the cute, ethereal bunny), are beautifully choreographed, not
improvised in the slightest, and generally in synchrony (the two dancers play the same character, and like the
choreographers themselves, they essentially are as one). Their dancing style is fluid, supple and calm, based on
slow arm movements, running on the spot, walking on their hands, cartwheels, pantomime turns (cf. the battle
against the elements, such as the wind, blizzard or flood), and sections of convulsive movements, portés and
balances in the final number.
The theatre was packed. And apparently delighted.
Nicolas Villodre
CONTACTS
CFB 451
53 Rue du Général Leclerc
94270 Le Kremlin-Bicêtre - France
+ 33 (0)1 43 60 76 11
www.cfbenaim.com
Ambre Takei
Administrative manager
[email protected]
Marion Gatier
Production and tour manager
[email protected]
Fanny Debray
In charge of communication and public relations
[email protected]
The company is generously supported by la Direction régionale des affaires culturelles d’Île-de-France – Ministère de la
Culture et de la Communication, au titre de l’aide à la compagnie chorégraphique conventionnée, la Région Île-de-France
au titre de la Permanence Artistique et Culturelle et de l’Emploi-tremplin, le Conseil Général du Val-de-Marne au titre de
l’aide au fonctionnement. The company is currently in residence at the Théâtre de Rungis.
Photo coverage: ©Estelle Brugerolles