Date/Time
Date(s) - 28/02/2018
6:30 pm - 8:00 pm
Location
ICCR
Categories
Weight of Joy
a dance performance by
Eric Languet and Cie Danse en l’R
Date: Wednesday, 28th February 2018
Time : 6:30 PM
Venue : Indian Council for Cultural Relations,
9A, Ho Chi Minh Sarani, Kolkata, West Bengal 700071
Free & open to all.
This show will close Bonjour India festival 2017-2018.
The Weight of Joy, a dance performance
The Weight of Joy is a dance project tackling the notion of handicap and social innovation. Through French choreographer Eric Languet’s benchmark work with dancers with disability, Bonjour India explores new ways of promoting positive action for disabled people.
Joy is not blissful ignorance, nor a denial of reality. Rather, to quote philosopher Nicolas Go, “joy assumes both finitude, barbarism and evil, setting up before the outbursts of violence its silent power, recalling the perfection of which man is capable.”
The Weight of Joy is a collaboration between European and Indian dancers, including dancers with hearing disability. Drawing from the friction of these different cultures, this work attempts to discover the foundation and the conditions for the emergence of joy, be it individual or collective.
On the borders of movement, text and music, this joyful and chaotic play will reconcile ourselves with the human species and all its ironies.
ARTISTS : ERIC LANGUET
Created With : Alliance Française Madras, Danse en l’R – Compagnie Eric Languet
Eric Languet, the French choreographer
Born in Compiegne (France) in 1962, Eric Languet moved to and grew up in Reunion Island where he discovered the art of dance. He left the island in 1983 in order to study at the national conservatory at Rueil-Malmaison (Paris). After a career as a classical dancer that brought him from the l’Opéra de Paris to the Royal New Zealand Ballet where he began his career as a choreographer, he later started to be interested in contemporary dance and theatre. His time as a dancer with Lloyd Newson’s DV8 Physical Theatre was a key element in his choreographic development and his future artistic choices.
Upon his return to Reunion in 1999 he created Danses en I’R and began a long-term collaboration with artists from Reunion and Africa. Far from being a simply formal and personal artistic endeavour, Eric’s productions investigate the notions of insularity that he derived from his New Zealand and Reunion experiences.
Pionneer of integrated dance in Reunion island, Eric and his company have been working with disabled and non disabled people since 2004.
A word from the choreographer
Ladies and gentlemen, good evening and welcome to the Weight of Joy!
As a choreographer, it was a great challenge that was given to me by the Alliance Française and the Bonjour India Festival : bringing together a cast of Indian, European and deaf persons and tell a story through movement. Talking to the performers about the idea of joy, one of the common answers was “a short lived burst of pleasure when you have the sensation of not being yourself any more”, which lead me to the idea of Carnival. Carnival is a popular festival where people can play a role, become someone else. It is the “upside down party”, the fight of the opposites, where women can become men, slaves become masters, next of keens become strangers. Carnival can be pure fun or the opportunity to adress personnal or social issues.
Crossing references between India and Europe, we decided to create a piece collectively with carnival as a central figure.
On an other level, the Weight of Joy is just about life in all its beauty and contradictions, as depicted so poetically by one of my favorite authors, Arundhati Roy : To love. To be loved.To never forget your own insignificance. To never get used to the unspeakable violence and the vulgar disparity of life around you. To seek joy in the saddest places. To pursue beauty to its lair. To never simplify what is complicated or complicate what is simple. To respect strength, never power. Above all, to watch. To try and understand. To never look away. And never, never, to forget.
Eric Languet
More
www.danses-en-l-r.com
