[ISEA2010] Artist Statement: Xavier Le Roy – Le sacre du printemps

Artist Statement

Choreography and Music 2007

Observing the Berlin Philharmonic during a rehearsal of “Le Sacre du Printemps” in 2003 (documented in “Rhythm is it” DVD), choreographer Xavier Le Roy decided to work on Stravinsky’s classic from an interest in the movements of conducting. Having no musical training, Le Roy ventured into a laborious process of studying Rattle’s interpretation as if it were a stand-alone piece of choreography. In the process cause and effect were reversed: the conductor’s gestures and movements, essentially meant to synchronise the musicians, appear to originate instead from the music. When is one playing and when is one being played? What do musicians, the conductor and spectators hear when hearing itself becomes part of an embodied, inevitably visceral experience of movement and sound? Which is the moment before and after the tone, the movement, the intention to move, the motor skills of playing?

  1. Concept and performance: Xavier Le Roy
  2. Music: Igor Stravinsky
  3. Sound Design: Peter Boehm
  4. Recording: Berliner Philharmoniker conducted by Sir Simon Rattle
  5. Collaborators: Berno Polzer, Bojana Cvejic
  6. Management/Organisation: Alexandra Wellensiek
  7. Production: in situ productions (DE) and Le Kwatt (FR)
  8. Coproduction: Centre chorégraphique national de Montpellier Languedoc-Roussillon (Xavier Le Roy Associated Artist 2007/08), Les Subsistances / Residence – Lyon, Tanz im August – Internationales Tanzfest 2007 – Berlin, PACT Zollverein Choreographisches Zentrum NRW – Essen.
  • Xavier Le Roy (FR) studied molecular biology at the University of Montpellier and has worked as a dancer and choreographer since 1991. From 1997 to 2003 he was artist in residence at the Podewil, Berlin. He choreographed solo performances Self Unfinished (1998), Product of Circumstances (1999), was invited by Tanz im August Festival to work with Yvonne Rainer Meetings (2000), realized Xavier le Roy (2000), a piece from Jérôme Bel; choreographed Giszelle (2001) in collaboration with Eszter Salamon; and Project (2003) a piece for 15 performers. He also staged Das Theater der Wiederholungen (2003) an opera from Bernhard Lang and Mouvements für Lachenmann (2005) an evening concert with music from Helmut Lachenmann. With the Berliner Philharmoniker Educational Project he choreographed Ionisation from Edgar Varèse with 40 children. Since 2004 he is involved in various educational programs. In 2007 he choreographed a solo on the music of Igor Stravinsky Le Sacre du Printemps. In 2008 he continues is research on musician gesture and creates More Mouvements für Lachenmann. In 2007-2008 he is associated artist at Centre Chorégraphique National de Montpellier (France) where he co-direct the education program and together with 9 artists initiated the project 6 months 1 location to explore specific working conditions. In 2009 he presents To contemplate at the festival In-Presentable-Madrid and Xavier fait du Rebutoh at the museum of Dance in Rennes which he reworks to premiere in PAF under the title: Product of Other Circumstances. In 2010 he created Floor Pieces at the Julia Stoscheck Collection in Düsseldorf and is invited as a fellow artist in residence at the MIT Program in Art Culture and Technology (Cambridge, USA).

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Supported by the national performance network with funding provided by the German Federal Cultural Foundation as part of its project Dance Plan Germany.