For the Grand Palais d'été, Boris Charmatz presents CERCLES, a workshop bringing together 200 dancers, where the choreography is developed in real time. Between collective energy and the emergence of singularities, where audiences are welcome to follow the warm-up and the evolution of the performance.

The choreographer was invited in 2021 to celebrate the launch of the Grand Palais, evoking in La Ronde, the circular movement that calls for synergy in traditional and contemporary dances around the world.

 

Boris Charmatz continues his work on the large-scale collective form by inviting 200 amateurs, surrounded by professional dancers, to participate in an XXL workshop set to music by the joyful German electro band Meute. The public is invited to the last three evenings of this workshop to share the dancers' warm-up and then witness the choreography being written. At the heart of the group, forming a radiant new community, emerges the singularity of each dancer. An ode to joy!

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“I wanted to look more closely at this recurring figure of the circle in the history of dance. Circle formations have an important tradition — from ancient representations to traditional folk dances across all continents, through classical ballet, all the way to contemporary choreography.

 

At first, I wanted to revisit the principle of La Ronde, which I created in 2021 — composed of duets invented for the occasion and iconic moments from the Western choreographic repertoire (from Don Quixote to pieces by Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker). The whole group gathers during workshops before inviting the public to witness an artist and their team at the heart of a creative process.

 

These encounters with large groups of amateur dancers allow me to expand and unfold a different perception of dance — to share it, to experiment with it beyond the theatre stage. There is something very real and powerful about coming together with non-professionals. It informs and transforms me! For me, the question is not what I can make them do, but rather what this collective experience does to all of us — calling on choreographic materials, questioning them, reinventing them, interpreting them…

 

This gives me the opportunity to explore forms of movement that might not be traditionally associated with professional dance. This approach is part of a desire to move dance beyond traditional spaces, to explore new relationships between movement and the environment — as I have already done in streets, squares, museums, and galleries.

 

It is a very horizontal process — almost ‘democratic,’ I would say — since we are all on the same level! This kind of work and meeting creates not just a richness of movement and expression but also of perspectives.”

(Boris Charmatz, June 2024, interview for the Festival d’Avignon)