Creation 2008
Faune(s)
In collaboration with Christophe Honoré, Vaslav Nijinski/Dominique Brun, Sophie Perez/Xavier Boussiron
Created and Performed by Olivier Dubois • Avignon 2008
Associate Artists
Christophe Honoré • Vaslav Nijinski/Dominique Brun • Sophie Perez/Xavier Boussiron • Olivier Dubois
Music
Frank Alamo • Claude Debussy • Michael Nyman • Xavier Boussiron • Sébastien Rioux
Creation Assistant
Cyril Accorsi
Lights creation
Patrick Riou
Costumes
Corine Petitpierre assisted by Peggy Sturm – Cédrick Debeuf
Wigs & Cosmetics
Michelle Bernet
Technical Direction
Christophe Technique
Interpretation
Olivier Dubois, Sophie Gérard, Caroline Baudouin, Laura Biasse, Marie-Laure Caradec, Claire Laureau, Enora Rivière, Julie Salgues.
Dans le film de Christophe Honoré : Tanel Derard, Jacob Lyon, Lucas Ruffié and Simon Truxillo.
Durée du spectacle
60 minutes
Production
Compagnie Olivier Dubois
Coproduction
Festival D’Avignon • MC2-Grenoble • Internationales Tanzfest Berlin-Tanz im August • Maison de la Culture d’Amiens • Centre de création et de production La rose des vents Scène nationale Lille Métropole à Villeneuve d’Ascq • Théâtre des Salins – Scène national de Martigues • Les Spectacles Vivants – Centre Pompidou • Centre National de la Danse – Pantin • Les Films d’Ici • Centre Chorégraphique National Roubaix Nord-Pas-de-Calais Compagnie Carolyn Carlson.
With the support
Centre Chorégraphique National de Grenoble, Jean-Claude Gallotta with the studio 2008 Ballet de Biarritz, Thierry Malandain with studio 2008, DRAC Île-de-France – Ministère de la culture et de la communication, Fondation Beaumarchais.
The idea is to approach L’Après-midi d’un faune as the work of an author, of course, but first and foremost as a work of interpretation.
To articulate the work through four distinct personal and collective visions to summon up history and heritage.
To confront the performer with the struggle of possession and absence.
To open the gates of the repertoire without belonging to history… To disappear!
So these are the challenges face by Faune(s).
Performer
To peruse, compose and recompose the work… To buckle, to submit and yet to pervert, thereby allowing the work to exist.
To embody, to identify, in the sense of conferring an identity, an erasable mark.
To exist in absence ad be absent from the act.
To transcribe and write anew.
Heritage
How does heritage affect new work of art? To stage the movement when the work becomes part of a tradition, when exhibiting the work coincides with its becoming heritage, to reveal the historical moment.
How do new works confront and start a dialogue with the established and recognized work?
It is necessary to unravel the ties of heritage, to search for the historical key.
And therefore to evoke the issue of time, of memory… Not in order to label but to bridge the time that separates the two!
Faune(s) was performed at the Cloître des Célestins from 6 to 13 July 2008 as part of the Festival d’Avignon.
Faune(s) is a re-adaptation of the heritage of modern dance a project that is historical and archeological as well as contemporary and quasi-iconoclast.
Directed by choreographer Dominique Brun, this piece is a humble, respectful and rigorus revival of L’Après-midi d’un faune initially choreographed by Vaslav Nijinski for the Diaghilev’s Ballets russes. Although the narrative suits the contemporary scenario, it is being performed in front of a large painting by Léon Bakst reminiscent of the premiere of the piece in 1912 at the Théâtre du Chatelet.
In this performance, Olivier Dubois assuming the role of the iconic figure of Nijinski is surrounded by nymphs. Various solo artists are invited to revisit the cult piece alongside Dubois : the choreographer Sophie Perez, the musician Xavier Boussiron, and the filmmaker Christophe Honoré.
An unconventional dancer, Dubois approaches Nijinski’s L’Après-midi d’un faune as though it were an archaeological site that demands utmost attention to minute details. The result is an explosion of myths in the true spirit of the Russian dancer’s eccentric creativity.
But everything starts on the screen […] It is a New Wave black and white film directed by Christophe Honoré, but at the same time, it is about Paris perceived by four smart young people. Here, the faun is a wild cat that observes, smells, snorts, pursues, and hunts. It ends up in a sordid hotel room on the sports dress of one of the boys – a tennis player – as if it had finally found the fetish of its overwhelming desire.
The moods vary from a profuse sweating of the flesh to secretion of pleasures as the movements shift from one moment to another during the course of the performance.