Boris Charmatz

A crane, a rotating ramp, and a pumping floor. In the room, which is illuminated in blackish-blue light, there is nothing to be heard except the metallic buzzing of machines that repeatedly jerk the dancers aloft and prevent them from standing up. The starting point for Boris Charmatz’ “enfant”, a choreography for nine dancers and ten children, was an interest in how the human body is at the mercy of machines. In “enfant”, the choreographer focuses on the relationship between the child and the adult’s world, thereby questioning the often unnoticed mechanisms of everyday manipulation that the oblivious body is subject to: the children appear lethargic on stage, as if they were sleeping. In the hands of adults, they become objects with no will of their own. But then, the relationship reverses and the boundaries between adult and child, passive and active, or man and machine blur until the children completely take control. Political and aesthetic unpredictability become artistic principles. From the initial dance of the sleepers, the abandoned or the defenceless, an anarchic choreography of autonomy emerges – a tangible, empowering force.

Choreography Boris Charmatz
Bagpipe Erwan Keravec
Light Yves Godin
Sound Olivier Renouf
Machines Artefact, Frédéric Vannieuwenhuyse, Alexandre Diaz
Assistant Julien Jeanne
Technical director Alexandre Diaz
Costumes Laure Fonvieille

With
Eleanor Bauer, Nuno Bizarro, Matthieu Burner, Olga Dukhovnaya, Julien Gallée-Ferré, Lénio Kaklea, Maud Le Pladec, Thierry Micouin, Mani A. Mungai
And a group of children from Rennes:
Imane Alguimaret, Rémi Cazoulat, Abel Charmatz, Marguerite Chassé, Tikal Contant-Ricard, Noé Couderc, Louison Dumont, Gaspard Gitton, Lune Guidoni, Salomé Lebreton, Louane Mogis, Rosa Morel-Flouzat