Membre fantôme

In the frame of Sujets à Vifs, Avignon 2016

_Photos : Pierre Grosbois (n°1) & _Guillaume Le Corre (n°2 et 3)__

Erwan Keravec and Mickaël Phelippeau, over a Breizh Cola and a Coke Zero, Avignon – July 2016.

Erwan - Most of all, I didn’t want you to sing.

Mickaël - Initially, we wanted to create a portrait of you – at least, that was my intention… and then we leaned more towards sharing the stage together.

Erwan - I think we tried to meet before trying to create something.

Mickaël - Yes, that’s true. I remember the first day we worked together. I thought we’d go directly to the studio, and you said, “We’re going to have coffee and smoke cigarettes. We need time to chat, and to truly meet one another. Isn’t that the main idea behind your work?” After that, we had many, many coffees.

Erwan - We started with this idea of a phantom limb. You had me read Peter Szendy’s book, which talks about learning to play an instrument, and it made a lot of sense. I often wonder what remains of traditional Breton music in me.

Mickaël - Generally speaking, our focus was on the question of heritage. Moreover, we quoted a lot of people during our 30-minutes performance. There were the usual grand references – but also our own, more personal ones. We really asked each other what we’d been raised on: the stuff we’re made of, and the stuff we have made, but also the things we both share in terms of heritage.

Erwan - Curiously enough, there was a common interest in my traditional Breton culture.

Mickaël - In my case, I got interested in traditional Breton dancing 8 years ago.

Erwan - You were full of preconceived notions.

Mickaël - Yes, but my encounter with a choreographer of traditional Breton dancing brought me to it. That was my starting point, and not a desire to go towards this type of repertoire. You did the exact opposite: you were educated and built yourself up from this culture, ultimately leaving it to move towards a more contemporary repertoire.

Erwan - We had fun with tradition. That’s healthy, isn’t it? Why did we decide you would dress up as a Breton woman ?

Mickaël - You had the bagpipes. We thought I should take on an element linked to tradition.

Erwan - And, in the end, you got to sing.

« (…)their remarkable, mutual commitment never fails. Whether it is the crazy, free sounds performed by the bagpipe player, or the bouncing, hybrid, genre-defying and extraordinary gestures of the dancer, much of which he develops in a large round dance. One will also see the very complex and graceful accents of Breton dances, which this fellow masters perfectly (…) »

Gérard Mayen, in Danser canal historique

Choreographic project by and with Erwan Keravec and Mickaël Phelippeau

Light design Séverine Rième

Executive production bi-p association and Offshore

Coproduction SACD, Festival d’Avignon, L’échangeur CDC Hauts-de-France

With the support of Theater Le Strapontin, scène des arts de la parole - Pont-Scorff, Amzer Nevez – Ploemeur, La Ménagerie de Verre in the frame of Studiolab, Centre National de la Danse – Pantin.

Thanks to Association Avel Dro - Guissény, Emmanuelle Bellego, Matthieu Banvillet & Alban Richard

See more about Sujets à vif on the Festival d'Avignon website (in french)