Choreographic creation 2021
Choreography, dance :
Brigitte Chataignier
with the complicity of the poet
Zéno Bianu and the painter Marc Feld.
Between two energy zones, a dancer goes on.
Between Yiddish and Sanskrit, old Vedic rhymes and mantras, folk songs of Kerala dances and songs of the old Jewish communities of Cochin, Brigitte Chataignier gradually discovers unpublished tracks, cross-sections dazzling.
Resonances and reminiscences, a journey of signs and traces, to reconnect the threads of time and distance, in the transcendence of the poem and the display of painting. At the heart of the project an exploration between dance, text and image for a creation that will meet many people on the road.
Statement of Intention
Beyond the recurring misfortunes of the world, art, for me, remains a key driver.
Something indestructible. A transmission to be endlessly reinvented, generating enthusiasm. This new piece multiplies these variations: A painter in his research sketches temporal landscapes; a poet tries an unpredictable dialogue between Moses and Shiva. So many approaches to inhabit time differently…
With Un Tracé, my latest creation, produced with Catherine Legrand in 2019, we looked for gestures that present similarities between the language of Dominique Bagouet and the Indian dance Mohini Attam as well as with other styles of dance that I had practiced in India.
In 1987, when I took my first step on Indian soil and before I plunged entirely into Kerala’s culture, I visited the Paradesi Synagogue in Cochin, parallel to visiting the temples. Later, in 2018, I met Elias Ben Josephai, the amazing keeper of another old synagogue in the same city, the Kadavumbagam Synagogue.
Hence took root a new session of questioning of the signs, language, transmission and migrations from people from one country to another country. What is that which is kept from the old, what is adopted, what’s new, and what happens to these confluences ?
From there was built this new creation, Mala, where I weave a link between my own origins and the great mythical India of travellers, the one where I went to learn and practice those ancestral gestures.
The Mala (or maala) is a string of pearls, or a garland. It adorns the bride, the Hindu deities, the dancers, it is also the rosary of the monk. It is beneficial and structuring, it brings together flowers, gems, wood, gold or silver. At the centre of each mala passes the thread. It settles down, turns around, twists, can break, can be mended or rethreaded.
This creation which bears its name draws its inspiration from a memorable journey, of knowledge and imagination. It is also a place’s name in Trichur, Kerala, derived from the old Hebrew Ma’Alaha / MalHa, meaning « centre of refuge ».
Going beyond the limits of the contemporary and the traditional, it is a philosophical fable, choreographic and poetic, and truly transnational. With Zéno Bianu, poet, Marc Feld, painter, Jean-Christophe Feldhandler, musician and composer, along with Sylvie Garot, lighting, Joe Ikareth, costumes, Sylvain Labrosse, videography and Brigitte Prost for the dramaturgy, Mala is built step by step, nourished by my internal memory and dance, by poetry, music, and painting, so many vectors of knowledge, expressions and survivals. The poetic text is spoken and sung. The dance meets the image.
B. Chataignier
Mala File
