ATALANTAS

A choreographic and musical creation 2022 for six dancers and a musician
Premiere on November 25th & 26th 2022 / EIN TANZ HAUS MANNHEIM, Germany

“So we need to join forces”

In view of the new situation we are experiencing in Europe today with the War in Ukraine, the creation ATALANTAS - which we write in the plural - takes on a new meaning, a new colour with 6 women of three European nationalities - Italian, Portuguese, French and German, on stage.
ATALANTAS belongs to our mythology and that is to say to the foundation of our civilization of this continent.
ATALANTAS warriors, women of action and conviction fight for their future, their place as women, their freedom. These are all the values that form the basis of EUROPE, values that are being called into question today with the war being waged in Ukraine.
What art more than dance, this art of the link, could unite us, joint our forces today?
ATALANTAS, or how to change the look, to build a new look.
From the first rehearsals of December 2021, the desire for this creation became clear for a piece carried exclusively by women and for women, perhaps from the same generation, living in Europe. Four performers living in France and Belgium and two in Germany will constitute the team.
ATALANTAS, the title came as a strong symbol for this project. Atalanta who defies the gods, changes the gaze of her father Iasos and of men, changes the father, Atalanta the tenacity and perseverance, Atalanta who goes to the ends of her desires, Atalanta the courage.
The question of "how to change the way we look at things", what Atalanta does, questions about desire, the place and role of each person in this world today, but also about audacity and courage, are at the heart of the research and pass through states of body, situations, steps proposed by and with the performers. Finally, aren't we all a little bit Atalanta as Gustave Flaubert "was" Emma Bovary?
All of these dimensions and notions that make up the portrait, constitute the research work and will guide the composition.
On the form, the first rehearsal sessions have brought out a work on the duet, a creative otherness that leads to a dialogue. These three duets will be followed by a final sextet.
Several sources for ATALANTAS: the images of August Sander with his "Faces of an era", as a mise en abyme of our own time, the artistic work of Joel Allouche musician of kabyle origin whose musical creation will be the red thread in this creation.
The choreographic research on this piece, like the previous RESURRECTION, will focus on the "choreographic narrative" woven through these three duos and this sextet. The composition of rhythm, space, energy, and light carries this choreographic narrative, from simple movements to more complex and elaborate situations, detached from any aestheticism, but with the concern of generating dynamics, as much in the individual research of the performers as in the ensemble.
By choosing to tackle Joël Allouche's scores after having choreographed BOLERO or AC/DC's music for EARTH, I wish to bring into play, in a different relationship to music and time, dynamics and writing biases already present in the repertoire with the work on time, between silence and movement in LES LOCATAIRES or with the work on frames in HARAKIRI for example.

Didier Théron
Montpellier, December 8th 2021