Program Black Box
15.07 | 19:00 | 50’
16.07 | 22:00 | 50’
Kalamata Dance Megaron / Black Box
CHRISTIAN RIZZO
EN SON LIEU
2020 creation, solo for Nicolas Fayol.
En son lieu goes beyond the question of location alone. It flows over the portion circumscribed in space to return to the properties of matter, thus restoring full compositional power. First performed outdoors, on uneven ground along with background noise, breathing and the movement of nature, the solo by skilled break-dancer Nicolas Fayol sparks the quality of a gesture in immediate relation with the surrounding landscape. Contrary to the urban environment, contextualising hip-hop dance to the extreme, this type of immersion in a living environment reveals a form of poetic primacy, prior to any usefulness, external to any virtuosity. Back in the black box of the studio, the correspondence between inside and outside, experience and memory, clarifies the terms of a dialogue which, from the start, is played out in pairs. Fragments of narration arise from a bend in the body; a portrait takes shape, divides and splits within a process of abstraction, wherein perceptions and sensations are intensified. But what path should be taken: That of indulging wanderlust in order to ward off loneliness, or that of tearing away from oneself and drifting?
The title of this new creation follows in the footsteps of d’à côté, d’après nature and une maison: it continues to define a very vague space, named only by the practice it hosts. A place on the scale of he/she who sets foot here: en son lieu. Placing the accent on the space of appearance and definition of the solo, and thus allowing the portrait to shift. D’après nature was a first meander towards the indoor – outdoor vanishing line, a first incursion into the open field of translation. The principle of this ongoing project is to decontextualise dances which first appeared in the studio, by re-locating them into the natural landscape and observing what remains after contact. Finally, the images are filmed and brought back to a black box. En son lieu clings as closely as possible to the genesis of dances in their landscape. Making prints on the body, then bringing these prints back into the black box.
With the support of the French Institute of Greece – Service of cooperation and cul
- Choreography, Costumes, Stage Design: Christian Rizzo
- Dance (Performance): Nicolas Fayol
- Lighting Design: Caty Olive
- Musical Composition: Pénélope Michel & Nicolas Devos (Cercueil / Puce Moment)
- Technical Direction: Bruno Capodagli
- Production & Touring Director: Anne Fontanesi
- Production & Touring Administrator: Anne Bautz
- Production: ICI—Centre chorégraphique National Montpellier Occitanie / direction Christian Rizzo
- Co-Production: CENTQUATRE-PARIS, Pronomade(s) en Haute-Garonne, TRAVERSE — Hautes-Pyrénées
- Thanks to: FAR WEST within the framework of its residency program and L’Essieu du Batut – artist residencies in Aveyron
- Presentation text: Noëmie Charrié
CHRISTIAN RIZZO
Christian Rizzo took his first steps as an artist in Toulouse, where he started a rock band and created a line of clothing before studying visual arts at the Villa Arson in Nice. Serendipitous encounters led him to the stage.
During the 1990s, he performed in Europe with numerous contemporary choreographers, sometimes responsible for their soundtracks or costume creation.
In 1996, he created “l’association fragile” and presented performances, installations and dance pieces, alternating with other commissions for opera, fashion and visual arts. Since then, over forty productions have come to fruition. Christian Rizzo regularly teaches in art schools in France and abroad, as well as in institutions dedicated to contemporary dance.
On January 1st 2015, Christian Rizzo took over as the Director of the Centre Chorégraphique National de Montpellier – Occitanie, which has been renamed ICI (International Choreographic Institute). He supports a crosscutting vision of creation, training, artistic education and openness to the public. Based on various practices and territories, this project is primarily a forward-looking space dealing effectively with inviting artists, creating the choreographic gesture and studying the forms that it can take when shared.
Whether as a choreographer, visual artist or curator, Christian Rizzo relentlessly pursues the elasticity and tension between bodies and space in narratives where fiction emerges from abstraction.
NICOLAS FAYOL
Nicolas Fayol discovered hip-hop dance in 2003 and was self-taught in break technique. In 2006, he joined the International School of Jazz Dance in Paris and trained in academic techniques for three years. In 2009, he won the Juste Debout competition in the “experimental” category. Since then, he has worked with several choreographers, directors and producers: Bruno Geslin, Alain Buffard, Sébastien Lefrancois, Guy Maddin, Lloyd Newson, Raphaelle Delaunay and Montalvo-Hervieu. He co-directed the video portraits for the project 200 CHAMBRES with Bruno Geslin, running workshops in high schools, jails, central prisons and psychiatric hospitals. He began to work with Christian Rizzo in 2016: he danced in the installation avant la nuit dernière during the 2016 Nuit Blanche, in Paris. He also performed in the 2017 creation d’à côté, a three-dancer piece for the general public. In 2018, he performed in Yoann Bourgeois’ work Scala. More recently, in 2020, Christian Rizzo choreographed a solo piece for him: en son lieu.
Alongside his work as a performer, he also works on visual art, photography and video-making in his garage workshop, while training and competing in hip-hop battles. In 2016, he created Hinterland with Lilas Nagoya and Laura Fanouillet. In 2017, he created a 25-minute duet piece with Mehdi Baki, Bye-bye myself, performed at the Main d’Œuvre (St Ouen). In 2021, he created OHHO, a 50-minute extension of the aforementioned duet, and in 2022 TONES & BONES, a jazz repertoire for saxophonist Daniel Erdmann and a dancer. In autumn 2023, he will present his new work, Faire fleurir.