Glissements de regard / Sliding gazes
That session was dedicated to the bounds between the multiple processes of creating and gazing.
It relied on the different protocols of creation adopted by several artists to discern what form of gaze they privilege. Choreographers, dancers, an artist and a dance theoretician associated to build a common protocol from their practices. The project team experimented that protocol. Twelve students of the dance department of the University of Paris VIII were invited to share the experience. They wrote a text, two by two, confronting their own looks on what they had done and witnessed. We found once again the questions around the terminology of gaze, enriched for the circumstance by the approach of a visual artist.
The issue was to appropriate the visions of other artists and to look for the differences and how they move, shift and change one’s own practice. It won’t be about doing something according to one or another, but to introduce an unusual element in one’s approach.
Some brief performances were given in the venue.
Furthermore, before the final performance, the play “Les yeux dans les yeux” was shown on Thursday night.
On Saturday, before the show, a workshop around gaze was held for sixteen inhabitants of the neighbourhood, followed by a round table moderated by a dance journalist.
La Briqueterie – CDC du Val-de-Marne hosted Gazing and Dancing #2 – Glissements de regard (Sliding Gazes) from 31 March to 5 April 2014. This event was presented as part of the Gazing and Dancing European cooperation project supported by the European Commission under the Culture 2007-2013 programme, led by the company Mille Plateaux Associés – Geisha Fontaine & Pierre Cottreau. Two public openings took place: on Friday 4 April 2014 at the Théâtre Paul Eluard in Choisy-le-Roi at 8pm, and on Saturday 5 April 2014 at La Briqueterie at 8.30pm, following on from the Dance Publishing Day. These public presentations offered a danced conclusion to the project’s theme: “the gaze in dance”.
Gazing & Dancing #2 – Glissements de regard was dedicated more specifically to the dancer’s gaze. In particular, the laboratory examined the physical dimension of the dancer’s gaze when involved in various creative processes, and drew on the differences in the creative protocols adopted by several artists. It also looked at what constitutes the choreographer’s gaze. Dancers, choreographers, scientists, theorists and dance students were invited to question the relationship between these different points of view.
A number of performative proposals were presented during the week in the new spaces of La Briqueterie, a former factory transformed into a dance centre.
A Japanese-influenced creation for two performers, “Les yeux dans les yeux”, was presented on Friday 4 April at the Théâtre Paul Eluard in Choisy-le-Roi, bringing an offbeat approach to the theme of the gaze.
At the end of this week of reflection and experimentation, the artists offered the public a final performance: Gazing and Dancing #2, on Saturday 5 April 2014. This performance was presented at the end of the Dance Publishing Day.