Rehearsal photos: Franco Mento
REPERTOIRE
8 Performers
Space minimal: 12 m x 10 m
Duration: ca. 1 h
Swiss Premiere: 05.05.2025
Théâtre du Crochetan Monthey (CH)
German Premiere 5.2025
tanzhaus nrw Dusseldorf (DE)
In Coproduction with Théâtre du Crochetan Monthey (CH), Tanzhaus NRW Düsseldorf, Theater im Ballsaal Bonn, Tanzfaktur Köln, Pumpenhaus Münster, Le Phare - Centre chorégraphique national du Havre et de Normandie (FR), Charleroi Danse centre chorégraphique de Wallonie – Bruxelles (BE), Pavillon Noir Aix-en-Provence (FR), Cité Bleue Genève (CH)
Funded by Kunststiftung NRW, Ministerium für Kultur und Wissenschaft des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen, Fonds Darstellende Künste aus Mitteln der Beauftragten der Bundesregierung für Kultur und Medien, Bun-desstadt Bonn, Théâtre-ProVS, Le Conseil de la Culture Etat du Valais, La Loterie Romande
Collaboration avec Malévoz Quartier Culturel Monthey (CH), Ringlokschuppen Mülheim, Kunst- und Aus-stellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland Bonn
• By and with: Álvaro Esteban, Cristina Commisso, Margaux Dorsaz, Evandro Pedroni, Léonce Konan Noah, Jenna Hendry, Nora Monsecour, Louis Thuriot/ Cola Lucot/ Bojana Mitrovic • Choreography:, direction: Rafaële Giovanola • Composition: Franco Mento/ Live Electronic: Szymon Wojcek •
Light, space: Annegret Schalke, Jan Wiesbrock • Costumes: Fa-Hsuan Chen • Vocal training, coaching: Justin F. Kennedy, Karine Barman • Dramaturgy: Rainald Endrass • Video documentation, pictures: Michael Maurissens/ CARRE BLANC PRODUCTIONS • Press work: Fabiana Uhart, Rainald Endrass • Social media: Maud Richard • Production managment: Marcus Bomski • Administration: Maxime Rappaz
• Management: Aurélie Martin
ABOUT
CHOREIA grew out of the study of different choral forms and the search for the space lost by choir and community. The choir is a theatrical form with incredible potential that plays an increasingly important role in CocoonDance's artistic development. CHORA (2023) had already created a specific space that tangibly united performers and spectators in a world of interacting bodies. Behind the 'research figure' of the choir lies the question of how the theatrical institution can become a form of living community.
CHOREIA consciously takes up the challenge of the historically imposed spatial separation between stage and audience space. Instead, choral forms from ballet, folklore and ancient comedy, as well as new choral forms for space, sound and body, are explored for their potential to bridge the physical distance in other ways.
CHOREIA explores both the power of unison and the power of polyphony, which arises from differences and divergences towards a polyphonic aesthetic. From a critical historical perspective, community should not be thought in terms of unity, but on the basis of difference between singular individuals. The goal of communal experience is not 'fusional community', but, as Jean-Luc Nancy formulates it (La communauté dévoyée, 1983), one that is conscious of being founded on difference.
The Greek word choreia also refers to the equal singing, speaking and dancing of citizens in a choir. CHOREIA attempts to give voice to the mute form of expression that is dance, because when it comes decisively to the power of action, to the disembodied expansion of bodies in space, to relations between groups and individuals, voice becomes an indispensable factor. For the research that has been ongoing since 2016, the figure of thought of the still 'unthought-of' body, the study of the voice in its 'corporality' is a promising extension that helps to imagine other incarnations, to break them down and put them in relation to other bodies.