Two dancers evolve on a stage with a refined decor. Their shadows undulate on large, movable white partitions. Their reflection attracts as much as reality. First Memorythe new creation by choreographer Noé Soulier, director of the CNDC in Angers since July 2020, focuses on the spontaneity of the most elementary gestures, the most used on a daily basis. “Hitting, dodging, throwing… These movements require the full deployment of the body, that’s what interests me”justified Noé Soulier last June, on the occasion of the first performance of his creation, in the setting of the Agora during the Montpellier Danse festival. “These are only intentions and not imitations. »
Alternating duets, solos and a few rare ensemble dances, Noé Soulier’s seven dancers soar, fall, slide, fluidly and sometimes jerkily. Their breath, frank and undisguised, is omnipresent. To the sound of a violin whose strings are barely caressed, the solo of a dancer, of great virtuosity, translates this bodily research pushed to the limit. The jumps land noiselessly, without effusion, with velvet steps.
Noé Soulier began classical dance at the Montpellier Conservatory before continuing his apprenticeship at the National Conservatory of Paris. At the National Ballet School of Canada, he then danced to the great works of the classical repertoire. Her first steps with contemporary dance took place later, in Brussels, within the PARTS school, founded by Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker. Since then, he explains, the differences in quality of the same movement have intrigued him.
Worked and spontaneous movements
Structured as “very written sentences”most “gathered together in a very open way”the choreography of First Memory is a polyphony of movements. In his choreographic research work, Noé Soulier, who also holds a master’s degree in philosophy, provokes complex situations and asks his dancers to get out of them with spontaneous movements. “We all have motor patterns that shape the way we move, sit, walkhe observes. Sometimes, watching a person move, we are confused. Few movements can produce this effect. How to capture this movement in particular and how to reproduce it? »
On stage, another ballet is played. That of the partitions repeatedly moved by the dancers themselves, playing with shadows, the appearance and reappearance of bodies. Practical gestures mingle with danced gestures. Sometimes, the choreography continues behind the picture rails, invisible to the public, before reappearing, continuing a phrase without interruption. Then, under a hint of light, a solo, slow, all in reserve and in balance holds the public in a meditative consideration, which, in a relief, ends up applauding the technical prowess of an outstanding dancer.