LesHéritier·x

The performance observes Orchésographie, the first manual of dance and choreographic writing, produced by Thoinot Arbeau (1588). In this manual, Toinot Arbeau, Jesuit priest, mathematician, and dancing master, teaches his disciple, a young lawyer, the art of dancing. At the critical point where dance finds its new destiny as choreography, lies the joint work of a lawyer and a priest. This is a powerful founding duo for considering choreography's historical relationship with law and authority.

Using this historical document as a starting point, the performance unfolds between documentary restitution and musical and choreographic rewriting, while observing the resonance of such a work in our contemporaneity.

The movement work is conceived as a space for negotiation, between deeply rooted sociological archetypes and metamorphoses that allow to explore outside normative frameworks or categorization. In this in-between space, we observe how each body state meets the other, revealing the spectrum that links them. Through this physical approach, we seek a way of making heritage that engages us. By recognizing ourselves as the product of history - whose construction we seek to understand - and by making our quest a vector of invention.

We seek to revive the Renaissance ballroom by revealing what runs through these dances, using our own codes and contemporary sensibilities. We seek to inhabit a territory rather than codify it. To do this, we allow ourselves to reinvent the ball beyond the false boundaries of the individual and the human.

A territory traversed by colours, postures, songs, ritualized dances, and spectacular intentions.

Concept & choreography Marion Zurbach in collaboration with the performers
Performance Évo Mine Lambillon & Pierre Piton
Performance & sound composition Stélios Lazarou
Renaissance dance expertise, vocal coaching, and musical arranging Madeleine Saur
Dramaturgy Arthur Eskenazi
Costumes design Silvia Romanelli
Lights design Olivier Famin
Oeil exterieur costumes Myriam Casanova
Drawings Maria Demandt
Texts "Orchésographie" by Toinot Arbeau, "Jouyssance vous donnerai" by Clément Marot, "Au joly boys" by Claudin de Sermisy
Pictures Robin Plus & Anouk Maupu
Video Stephane Darioly
Administration Raphaël Soleilhavoup
Production Maxine Devaud & Prune Allain-Bonsergent

Coproduction Dampfzentrale Bern
Partners Le Grütli, Halle Nord, Théâtre Sévelin 36, Artagon, KLAP Maison pour la danse, Montévidéo Marseille, Ménagerie de verre, Point Éphémère

Supports Kultur Stadt Bern, SWISSLOS/Kultur Kanton Bern, Migros-Kulturprozent, Schweizerische Interpretenstiftung SIS, Gesellschaft zu Ober-Gerwern, Fond Culturel de la Société Suisse des Auteurs (SSA), Bürgi-Willert-Stiftung, Ernst Göhner Stiftung