Xavier Le Roy Le sacre du printemps (2018)

In this updated version of a major piece in his repertory, dedicated to the musical gesture, Xavier Leroy turns the movements of the orchestra conductor into a dance all of its own. Divided into three scores for the same number of performers, it offers a unique opportunity to expose the body as musician.

In 2007, inspired by the documentary on the Berlin Philharmonic Orchesta Rhythm is it !, Xavier Le Roy tackled Igor Stravinsky’s composition, this monument in musical modernity, as a form of choreographic notation in itself. As such, his Rite of Spring brings to the stage what is usually hidden from view, namely the conductor’s gestures in interpreting the piece. This bias neutralizes the authority the music has over the body, and the body becomes the driving force behind the score just as much as it is determined by it. His new version picks up on the concept once again and divides it up for three performers, Scarlet Yu, Salka Ardal Rosengren and Alexandre Achour. His objective in doing so is to double up the question of the original interpretation with those of the different transmission and translation that each of the dancers brings. The deconstruction of the conductor, split between these different styles, has the effect of redistributing the modes of address to the audience just as it redefines the established orders at the heart of the aesthetic relationship. In this way, the processes of empathy engaged in the reception bring together the audience and the musicians in a unique community, rendered all the more complex here due to this superimposition and articulation of three strong subjectivities.
–––––––
Running time : 1h