Black Swan (2009)

Premiered on April 21st 2009 at Bonlieu Scène nationale, Annecy, France

PRESENTATION

The title Black Swan conveys philosopher Karl Popper’s theories on the power of the improbable, or the unpredictable. Gilles Jobin embraces unpredicted events in order to turn them into favorable instruments for the development of his choreography, without any logic of anticipation. He confronts the moving body, the movement freed from meaning, the movement freed from discourse. A choreography made of a disconcerting harmony out of which the gesture emerges and escapes beyond the realms of possibility.

In Black Swan movement builds itself up, through successive, carefully written, danced phrasings, without any loops or repetitions and chronologically aligned, similarly to a japanese calligraphy. The interlocking of choreographic sequences (solo, duo, then trio) declines itself as a trilogy, each piece overlapping the other. The choreography happens as witnessed by the gaze and the operative action of a technician-dancer, one can see in some forms of Japanese theatre. An essential operator for the development of the show since he makes his body available for the movement of the other.

A dreamlike journey whose uncanny appeal evokes Haruki Murakami’s universe and this author’s ability to play with reality. The events, both real and unreal ones, appear unsurprising to the spectator who can drift along the choreographic sequences. This aesthetic of the unreal and the manipulation of objects eventually become an extension of the body. The spectator’s mind’s eye absorbing the visual proposal and reenacting a remembrance of childhood. A playground ushered by Christian Vogel’s – company’s music director –, two-tones.

TOUR

2010
8 January: Festival Focus : Switzerland – Art Stations Foundation – Poznan, Poland
15-16 January: Dampfzentrale – Bern, Switzerland
22-23 April: Kaserne – Basel, Switzerland
4 May: Theater Chur – Chur, Switzerland
22 May: Festival Nouvelles Strasbourg Danse – Pôle Sud – Strasbourg, France
16 June: 13th European Dance Festival – Limassol, Cyprus
19-20 September: Bird Theatre – Tottori, Japan

2009
Premiere 21-22-23 April : Bonlieu Scène nationale – Annecy, France
28 April : BIPOD – Beyrouth, Lebanon
7 May : Rencontres Chorégraphiques de Carthage – Tunis, Tunisia
28 May : Festival Extra 09 Bonlieu Scène nationale – Annecy, France
30-31 May : Dance Week Festival – Zagreb, Croatia
11 June : Festival Latitudes Contemporaines – Lille, France
22 to 26 September : Arsenic – Lausanne, Switzerland
1 October : Dense Bamako Danse 2009 – Bamako, Mali
6 October : Dance Triennale Tokyo 2009 – Tokyo, Japan
9 October : Sidance Festival – Seoul, South Korea
27-28 October : Forum Internacional de Dança – Belo Horizonte, Brazil
31 October : Festival Danzalborde – Valparaiso, Chile
5 November : Bienal de dança de Santos – Santos, Brazil
7 November : Festival Panorama de Dança- Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
1. 3.4.5 December : Théâtre de la Ville – Paris, France
8 to 13 December : Grütli – Geneva, Switzerland