Please Please Please
Exclusion, transformation, disappearance… In what ways do social institutions like the church, schools and theatres leave marks on the human body? Mathilde Monnier and La Ribot use dance to examine this central question in Michel Foucault’s philosophical oeuvre, accompanied by the poetic language of Portuguese director Tiago Rodriques and music by Béla Bartók. Set against an apocalyptic background, the two dancers will present an impassionate reflection on humanity’s path to self-annihilation, both as an ode to beauty as well as in defence of the horrific. The urgency of an ever more accelerated and immanent future will be expressed through an intimate and universal dialogue between a mother and her daughter – discussing in what ways we failed and what may still be possible. What kinds of worlds, societies and histories will we pass on to future generations? How can we succeed in overcoming the present, giving hope of a better future?
born in Madrid and currently based in Geneva, is a choreographer, dancer, director and visual artist; a radically multidisciplinary creator. Her work has its origins in movement, the body, and her own background in dance, to which she adds other practices, systems and materials as they become necessary. From the beginning of her career her work has included live performance, video, speech, sign language, found art, installations and “relational” works. She has involved different communities in her performances and videos, both professional colleagues and people with no experience in the world of art. Her works have been presented at the Tate Modern (London), the Centre Pompidou (Paris), the Panorama Festival (Rio de Janeiro) and Art Basel. In 2020, La Biennale Danza (Venice) awarded her the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement.
is a role model in French and international contemporary dance’s landscape. From piece to piece she defies expectations by presenting a work in constant renewal. Her nomination at the head of the Choreographic Centre of Montpellier Languedoc-Roussillon in 1994 marks the beginning of a series of collaborations with personalities from various artistic fields (Jean-Luc Nancy, Katerine, Christine Angot, La Ribot, Heiner Goebbels…). She created more than 40 choreographic works presented on the great stages of the Avignon festival, the biggest theaters of Paris, New York, Vienna, Berlin, London… and received several awards for her work : The French Ministry of Culture prize, the SACD Grand Prix. Between 2014 and 2019 she was the general director of the National Dance Centre in Pantin.
is a Portuguese theatre director and producer. In addition to his collaborations with several Portuguese and international stage artists, he has also written screenplays, newspaper contributions and literary texts and taught at institutions that include that Belgian dance school P.A.R.T.S. The theatre of Tiago Rodrigues is always developed for and with the actors, striving to blend reality and fiction through poetry. He regards theatre as a “human assembly” – a place where people meet, as in a café, to share their thoughts and spend time together. As director of the Teatro Nacional D. Maria II, Tiago Rodrigues is a builder of bridges between cities and countries, at once host and advocate of a living theatre.
Credits
In French with English surtitles
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