RAFALES

24 April / 19:30 PM/ DNK – Space for Contemporary Dance and Performance
1 Bulgaria Square, National Palace of Culture – underground, opposite to the fountains

Benjamin Bertrand (France)

RAFALES

Concept, choreography and dance Benjamin Bertrand
Creative assistant and dance Léonore Zurflüh
Sound Florent Colautti
Set design Benjamin Bertrand, Patrick Laffont, Abigail Fowler
Costumes Cédrick Debeuf
Dramaturgical consultant Florian Gaité
Photo Martin Argyroglo

Duration: 60 min.

Production: CBB
Production déléguée:  TAP-Théâtre Auditorium de Poitiers
Co-productions: TAP-Théâtre Auditorium de Poitiers, La Briqueterie-CDCN du Val-de-Marne, SACD-Fondation Beaumarchais au titre de l’aide à l’écriture et à la production, OARA (Office Artistique de la région Nouvelle-Aquitaine)
CBB bénéficie du soutien de la DRAC Nouvelle-Aquitaine au titre de l’aide au projet, de la Ville de Poitiers, de l’ADAMI

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The storm and the rafale – the gust, burst, or flurry – are both animated by the instability of air, a weightless substance passing fluidly between interior and exterior. Rafales transfers to the stage the fluid dynamics of wind in a constant wavelike movement… A man, a woman, a ventilator and a gust of wind which connects them. Nothing more is necessary for the young French choreographer Benjamin Bertrand’s Rafales. In the delicate and intense duo with Léonore Zurflüh, between their two bodies – similar and opposite at the same time, androgenous and sexual, everything is a matter of feeling the flow of air, the stream of movement, the contact between the air and the skin. The two dancers immerse in an aesthetic organic dance, resembling a ritual of a kind. They are helped by electronic vibrations, created live by Florent Colautti. The stage is transformed into a shared sensual territory, involving the audience into an unusual “choreographic breathing”.

Born in Paris 1989, Benjamin Bertrand studied literature and philosophy at the Sorbonne (Paris IV).  Parallel with his university studies, he started superior studies in contemporary dance in the Conservatoire des Abbesses (Paris). As a performer, he has worked with the well-known choreographer Olivier Dubois in the emblematic choreography Tragedy, with which they took part in the Avignon Festival. In 2013 Bertrand had an individual debut with the trio De l’orange – a choreographic research on melancholia, influenced by the painter Durer and Lars Von Trier’s films. His first solo work Oranges (2015) is based on the idea of the native land and combines autobiography and fiction in exploration of his own roots.

With Rafales Benjamin Bertrand makes a name for himself as a French rising star on the international dance scene. In his choreographies he deals with building relations to space and emptiness, with transformation of something known in something else, with intensity of vibrations…

 

Tickets: 8 BGN / 12 BGN on the day of the performance

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WARM UP with the audience led by Benjamin Bertrand 6:15 PM, DNK
Free entrance.