Copyright Audoin Desforges
Ciao bella
Creation 2009
Conception and choreography : Herman Diephuis
In collaboration with and interpreted by : Julie Guibert, Claire Haenni, Dalila Khatir, Maud Le Pladec and Catherine Pavet
External view : Julien Gallée-Ferré
Light : Sylvie Mélis
Sound : Alexis Meier
Costumes : Alexandra Bertaut
Music : Paul Misraki, Madonna, Johan Strauss, Peter Ilyich Tchaïkovski, Olivia Newton-John, Bee Gees, Richard Wagner, Amilcare Ponchielli
Production : association ONNO
Coproduction : Le Manège de Reims-scène nationale / Festival Montpellier Danse 2009 / Arcadi (Action régionale pour la création artistique et la diffusion en Ile-de-France) / Centre Pompidou, Les Spectacles Vivants – Paris / Centre Chorégraphique National de Montpellier Languedoc-Roussillon
The company was accommodated in residence for the following rehearsals: à CANGO Cantieri Goldonetta Cie Virgilio Sieni – Florence, at the Ménagerie de Verre – Paris as part of the Studiolab, at the Quatrain – “communauté de communes” Sèvre, Maine & Goulaine, at Manège de Reims and at Atelier de Paris - Carolyn Carlson
With the help of the French Institute in Florence
Working on Italian Renaissance painting for the creation of D'après J.-C., I realised how the artists of that period were inspired by traditional art and literature when establishing the icons of feminine beauty. The image drawn from an unreal and unnatural body became a carnal package of the Virgin Mary, Mary Magdalene or Venus and from then on it served as a model for all Western art.
Paradoxically, what has remained unchanged from the virgins of Quattrocento to the silhouettes of XXIst century models is the idealisation of feminine beauty. It remains a fantasized projection of male desire, in which the images ensnare even those who refuse them. Women are supposed to define themselves in rapport with that ideal - an aesthetic assigned to them and which subjugates them.
I wanted to tackle our ambiguous relationship with these images and question the representation of women through the ages, using a variety of materials. In Ciao bella, the five performers personify these stereotypes in the extreme, subverted from within. They toy with these clichés and construct a perfectly artificial creature, manufactured to the point of becoming monstrous but also capable, in fine, of evading all references and maybe finding its freedom in this paroxysm of appearance.
Herman Diephuis
Touring
2011 Maison de la danse - Lyon
2009 Festival Montpellier Danse // Centre pompidou, les spectacles vivants - Paris // Le Manège de Reims - scène nationale, dans le cadre d’un grand soir // Festival Globalize - Cologne (DE)