At the Rennes Choreographic Center, the rule is the collective. They are not a single dance choreographer at the head but six grouped under the title of the FAIR-E collective. Originally they were friends, who found themselves dancing for fun and then challenged each other, more united than ever according to the rules of battles. Joined by administrative managers also dedicated to the beauty of acting collectively. In the spotlight in this chosen family, Ousmane Sy, noted for his beautiful Queen Blood dedicated to the women of hip-hop, and died suddenly in December 2020. His One shot, a posthumous piece, was created at the Rencontres hip-hop de Suresnes in presence of Roselyne Bachelot, then Minister of Culture. In the collective, a talented couple Johanna Faye and Saïdo Lehlouh also stand out. She seeks to find common ground through movement. He is a B. Boy with the agility of a feline. Together, they created two successful plays Apaches then Earthbound, taken up last year by the CNSMD in Paris. This year, Johanna Faye took flight.
Saïdo Lehlouh alone signs his latest creation Témoin. A way of completing the loop started with Apaches where he follows the challenges of his commitment: how can dance create a connection? “Witness is about bringing together people who don’t necessarily know each other but who, through their personalities, their approaches or their backgrounds, all have something in common. » And a choreographic principle: “The people invited are for the most part self-taught, and when they enter the framework of the performance, they know that they have the possibility of transforming it”. Witness therefore allows us to witness the slow mutation of a form composed of twenty people.
Lehlouh has several strings to his bow: he knows how to anchor his movements in the groove until the burst of invention and explosion, a knowledge specific to breakers. Rarer, it has a sense of sophistication, mystery, soft and fluctuating form. In Témoin, he sets up a mobile atmosphere where the grays powder, where the distances shadow the performers, where beings meet at diffuse borders, which are effectively those of these twenty amateurs – brother, fiancée, ex-girlfriend, professional relationship …- gathered for the occasion, and who do not rub against each other daily in the studio. How to do, do well, undo? Lehlouh pushed the refinement to the point of constituting two different casts of twenty people who alternate according to the geographical locations where the play is performed.
We have rarely seen the station wagon flourish in such unique regions. Especially since Lehlouh, mastermind of the meetings between these “witnesses” free to improvise, sets a tempo: that of suspension, of slowness, without forbidding stop and go. What is happening on a stage between strangers? How does the presence of one disrupt the actions of the other? What is there to remember? What feelings arise from an observation, a reaction or a question? How does the group influence the individual? Lehlouh opens up many paths to the decision-making process that we have not yet finished exploring. We will see a lot of him this year. Apaches will be performed again in the spring at the Paris Opera for the Cultural Olympiads. As for Témoin, he is just starting his tour which will pass through Paris, Lyon and Annemasse.
From February 24 to 27, 2024 at the Théâtre de la Ville in Paris From April 3 to 5, 2024 at the Maison de la danse, Lyon April 9 and 10, 2024 at the Château Rouge, Scène Conventionnée in Annemasse
