Dancing in the stark
by Carol Pratl

Gilles Jobin is one of a handful of rebellious young choreographers who are boldly using nudity as material for their creative explorations. The 35-year-old Swiss choreographer gained recognition a couple years ago at the Montpellier dance festival with a piece called “X + Y = Z,” in which costumeless dancers flesh served as a “screens” for super 8 film projections.
After years of staging his “chamber” works in intimate settings, he’s been invited to tackle the demanding Théâtre de la Ville public in the first of two programs scheduled this season at the Abbesses.
“Braindance” starts out like a scene after a battlefield or a massacre with twisted bodies lying motionless. Others arrive, pulling and manipulating the scattered souls who seem reduced to Gumby dolls. Jobin insists that his use of nudity “is neither a rebellion, nor a desire to shock audiences. In the ’60s it was a statement of liberation.” “For me,” he continues, “it’s a means to be freer to say something else. It’s like an extra costume that forces you to deal with the minimal.”
Jobin’s marginality lies not in the fact that the stage is swarming with naked dancers, but in the way he manages to create an eery subhuman atmosphere devoid of any sensuality. The body becomes banalized, like a shop window mannequin that’s hardly likely to excite the average passerby, and gender is never an issue. Through unconventional lighting like flashlights that will suddenly focus for a brief instant on a woman’s sex or a man’s thigh muscle seemingly dissected from the rest of the body, the spectator’s perception gets muddled.
Jobin’s work is clearly disturbing for many and the huge Abbesses stage will be a real test, with its plunging sightlines. Can the same distorted almost kaleidoscopic effect be reproduced?
“Braindance” (choreography by Gilles Jobin), Oct 17-21 at 9pm, Théâtre de la Ville, 2 pl du Châtelet, 4e, M° Châtelet or RER Châtelet-Les Halles, tel: 01 42 74 22 77. “Braindance” will be preceded each evening by a piece titled “Mas Distinguidas,” (choreography by La Ribot) beginning at 7:30pm

Dance Selections

“Reencuentro,” “Zapateado,” “Movimiento Flamenco” (Antonio Marquez Company) Oct 2, 4, 6, 7, 9, 10, 12 at 8pm. The Opera season opens this year in the Bastille Amphithéâtre with a flamenco program choreographed by Spanish master Antonio Marquez. Contrary to other great flamenco performers of his generation who’ve dared to stray from tradition, Marquez and his ensemble remain purists. Opéra National de Paris-Bastille, 2 bis pl de la Bastille, 12e, M° Bastille, tel: 08 36 69 78 68

“Raymonda” (chor. Rudolf Nureyev) Oct 5, 9, 11, 12, 14, 16, 19, 23 at 7:30pm; Oct 8 at 3pm. This three-act medieval saga complete with sumptuous decor and costumes tells the epic tale of a virtuous young princess who must thwart the advances of a barbarian invader until her fiancé returns from the Crusades to straighten things out. Opéra National de Paris-Palais Garnier, Paris Opera Ballet Company, pl de l'Opéra, 1er, M° Bastille, tel: 08 36 69 78 68

Danses d’Automne, Oct 6, 7, 13, 14 at 8:30pm, “La petite fille aux allumettes” (chor. Elizabeth Schmidt/Tendanse), Oct 22 to Dec 17, Sat & Sun at 4pm. Short works by promising young choreographers. Danse, Théâtre & Musique Studio-Théâtre, 6 rue de la Folie Méricourt, 11e, M° St-Ambroise, tel: 01 47 00 19 60

“Xavier le Roy” (chor. Jérôme Bel), “The Station of the Cross or The Passion of Stuar” (chor. Stuart Sherman), “Le Meilleur Moment” (Grand Magasin) Oct 13 & 14 at 8:30pm, Oct 15 at 4:30pm. True to its mission of promoting only the best in avant-garde creation, the Pompidou center presents another mixed program of contemporary dance by three very different dancemakers. Centre Pompidou, pl Georges Pompidou, 4e, M° Hôtel de Ville, tel: 01 44 78 12 33

“Apollon Musagète” (chor. George Balanchine), “A Suite of Dance” (chor. Jerome Robbins), “Annonciation” (chor. Angelin Preljocaj), “Yamm” (chor. Lionel Hoche), Oct 21, 24, 30 at 7:30pm; Oct 22 at 3pm. Four works by two generations of world-class choreographers are included in this program of neo-classical non-narrative movement. Opéra National de Paris-Palais Garnier, Paris Opera Ballet Company, pl de l'Opéra, 1er, M° Bastille, tel: 08 36 69 78 68

“Carte Blanche à Simone Forti” Oct 23 at 9pm. The Théâtre de la Bastille pays tribute to happenings pioneer Simone Forti, a prominent player in the American performance and improv scene from the 1950s through the 1970s. Théâtre de la Bastille, 75 rue de la Roquette, 11e, M° Bastille, tel: 01 43 57 42 14

“Document 1” (chor. Lynda Gaudreau/Compagnie de Brune), Oct 24-28 at 8:30pm. Lynda Gaudreau premieres her “Document 1,” a collection of movement fragments (live and virtual), each dealing with a specific part of the body almost in encyclopedic fashion. The setting will be hygenic, clinical and matter-of-fact, complete with dissection table. Théâtre de la Ville/Abbesses, 31 rue des Abbesses, 18e, M° Abbesses, tel: 01 42 74 22 77

“Des souffles de vie” (chor. Héla Fattoumi), Oct 27 to Nov 4 at 9pm; Sun at 5pm. “We think and we live the dance like an explosion of the self creating its own language,” is how Héla Fattoumi describes her work with longtime partner Eric Lamoureux. In this new work inspired by the writings of Brazilian author Clarice Lispector, movement, voice and accordeon sounds interact like three distinct identities striving to share the same space. Théâtre de la Bastille, 75 rue de la Roquette, 11e, M° Bastille, tel: 01 43 57 42 14

Tokyo Zone Oct 31 to Nov 5 (various times). A truly multimedia event made in Japan, Tokyo Zone presents a week-long program of contemporary music, films, photo exhibits, literary debates and Butoh dance works by leading Japanese artists in the arts sans frontières spirit of the new millennium. Café de la Danse, 5 passage Louis Philippe, 11e, M° Bastille, reservations: 01 47 00 57 59