• Wednesday 20 June 2012 - 20h30
• Thursday 21 June 2012 - 20h30
• Friday 22 June 2012 - 20h30
• Saturday 23 June 2012 - 20h30

CONFRONTING VISIONS

This creation, confronting visions, was prompted by Faustin Linyekula’s reading in 2006 of Sylvie Chalaye’s Du noir au nègre [From Black to Nègrer], when he found out about the first ballet of nègre inspiration, La Création du monde. It was created in 1923 at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées by the Swedish Ballets and brought together Darius Milhaud as composer, Blaise Cendrars as librettist, Fernand Léger for the setting and choreographer Jean Börlin. At the time it was perceived as “a negro-cubist fantasy”. At the Théâtre de la Ville’s initiative Faustin Linyekula and the Ballet de Lorraine have set up a project in which La Création du monde 1923-2012 absorbs the original piece like a quotation. Millicent Hodson and Kenneth Archer reconstituted the 1923 piece with the Ballet de Lorraine dancers. It is meant to echo the artistic itinerary of Faustin Linyekula, a choreographer living in Kisangani in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The piece emanates a sharp aesthetic and political insight shared at once by composer Fabrizio Cassol, stylist Lamine Badian Kouyaté/Xuly Bët and scenographer Jean-Christophe Lanquetin.

Fabienne Arvers