Stage work for seven dancers (2025)
Since 2022, choreographer and artist Lenio Kaklea took an ecological turn by reflecting on how we can relate to living things through the prism of dance. Following on from Agrimi (Fauve), in which she explored the multiple configurations of the relationship between predator and prey, in The Birds she studies animals that have structured their behavior through a spectacular repertoire combining dance and song. The parade or defense of a bird's territory allows the choreographer to reflect on the desire to be seen and heard, one of the mainsprings of our individual and collective identities. She explores these issues in a choreography in which a group of hybrid beings are thrown into a dance that brings out vibrant individualities in unison. Through a subtle play with space, the dancers' movements acquire, as with migratory birds, a planetary scope. However, in her reflection on these animals, the choreographer does not stop at a utopian vision. She finds in birds a powerful figure of control, in the form of the overhanging viewpoint of birds of prey. With The Birds, Lenio Kaklea thus questions the construction of a society of control where theatricality is exacerbated, a society in which freedom and subjugation are more than ever in precarious equilibrium.
Duration: 1 hour and 5 minutes
Choreography and Stage Direction: Lenio Kaklea
Performed by and Developed With: Nefeli Asteriou, Liza Baliasnaja, Amanda Barrio Charmelo, Luisa Heilbron, Louis Nam Le Van Ho, Dimitri Mytilinaios, Jaeger Wilkinson
Text: Lou Forster according to Les Guérilleres by Monique Wittig and Les chimères by Gérard de Nerval
Sound Composition and Technical Direction: Eric Yvelin
Scientific Interlocutor: Thierry Aubin, Director of the Acoustic Communication Team CNRS, Paris-Saclay University
Set: Clio Boboti
Lights: Jean-Marc Ségalen
Costumes: Olivier Mulin
Assistant Set Designer: Angeliki Vassilopoulou-Kampitsi
Set Seamstress: Angeliki Baltsaki
Scientific Interlocutor: Thierry Aubin, Director Acoustic Communication Team CNRS, Paris-Saclay University
Trapeze Instructor: Christina Sougioultzi
Administration and Production Management: Olivier Poujol
Distribution: Fanny Virelizier
Production: abd
Co-production: Biennale of Charleroi Dance/Choreographic Center of Wallonie and Bruxelles (BE), The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) Los Angeles (US), Le festival d’automne (FR), CCN/Ballet de Lorraine (FR), Théâtre de la Vignette (FR), NEXT Festival (BE), CCN/Ballet National de Marseille (FR)
abd receives structural subsidies from the DRAC/Île de France, and the support of the 2025 Consultation of the Convention French Institut-City of Paris.
With the support of the Montpellier Dance Festival, the CNDC/Atelier de Paris and the Carreau du Temple.
La Croix Fr 02.07.2025
Spintica Fr 03.07.2025
Devient Fr 03.07.2025
Snobinart Fr 03.07.2025
To Vima Gr 13.06.2025