Depuis sa nomination en mai 2010, Joanne Leighton présente des pièces de formes différentes et destinées à des types d’espaces de présentations variés : scènes classiques de théâtres, musées et espaces d’arts contemporains, lieux patrimoniaux, espaces publics.

Joanne Leighton a fait le choix d’inscrire dès son arrivée à Belfort 3 pièces/projets Made in Taiwan, Display/Copy Only et Les Modulables au répertoire du CCNFCB.
Pour Joanne Leighton, il est important d’avoir une mémoire vive du travail de création passé activable immédiatement afin de faire vivre ce répertoire. Cette dynamique permet de maintenir une visibilité du CCNFCB au travers des multiples représentations à Belfort, en région, en France et à l’étranger.
Le CCNFCB est ainsi renforcé dans son rôle de lieu de référence pour la chorégraphie dans le cadre de sa première mission de création.
Afin de développer ces différents projets, Joanne Leighton a constitué un premier groupe de danseurs : Jérôme Andrieu, Matthieu Bajolet, Yoan Boyer, Marion Carriau, Massimo Fusco, Claire Laureau, Edouard Pelleray, Pauline Simon. D'autres les rejoindront en fonction des créations.

Midori

MIDORI

For the creation of Exquisite Corpse which premiered at the Le Granit in May 2012, Joanne Leighton invited leading french dancer Jérôme Andrieu to join the company of the Centre Chorégraphique National de Franche-Comté à Belfort.

Following this rich artistic encounter, Joanne and Jérôme will continue their collaboration, working together for the creation of Un Solo for Jérôme in 2013.

Outside of the solos which form part of the pieces present in Five Easy Pieces and Les Modulables,  Joanne has rarely made solos for other dancers. Following on from the success of her own solo Made in Taiwan, Joanne will for the first time create a full-length solo work for another dancer with Un Solo.

The piece will give Joanne an opportunity to continue her explorations of the idea of the copy and the original in performance, notions which are central to her work.

According to Geneviève Charras in the May/June 2010 issue of Poly magazine:
Joanne Leighton never ceases to surprise us. From the beginning of her choreographic work, she has maintained her love for performance, the most fruitful of the creative practices … Her aim has always been to explore new pathways to reach the audience, and new strategies for working in different spaces. Joanne looks to make a show or a non-show, but always to touch and contact the other, the public.

Un Solo is a work that will be built around these central themes of Joanne’s work, to create a vehicle for the exceptional talents of Jérôme Andrieu





JÉRÔME ANDRIEU
After studying contemporary dance at the Conservatoire National de Musique et de Danse de Paris, Jérôme has established himself as one of the premiere dancers of his generation. He has worked with a number of leading choreographers including: Daniel Larrieu, Mié Coquempot, Laure Bonicel, Mathilde Monnier, Alain Buffard, and more recently Fanny de Chaillé, Herman Diephuis, Stéphanie Aubin and Emmanuelle Huynh. He has also worked in film and video, and created the short films Rewind, Sur-prise, within the framework of the project A l’œil nu by Rachid Ouramdane, as well as Démonstration for Stéphanie Aubin. In 2011 he worked with the photographer Maxime Lefèvre-Roque. Exquisite Corpse in 2012 is his first collaboration with Joanne Leighton.

CONTACT CCNFCB : diffusion@ccnfc-belfort.org

Exquisite Corpse

CREATION MAY, 10th and MAY, 11th
Le Granit, Scène Nationale de Belfort

Reservation Le Granit
+ 33 (0)3 84 58 44 88
reservation@legranit.org

EXQUISITE CORPSE
for 58 choreographers and 7 dancers

Exquisite corpse, also known as exquisite cadaver or rotating corpse, is a method by which a collection of words or images is collectively assembled, the result being known as an exquisite corpse or cadavre exquis in French. Each collaborator adds to a composition in sequence, either by following a rule (e.g. «The adjective noun adverb verb the adjective noun.») or by having access to an exerpt from the previous contribution.

The idea was originally developed by a group of artists and writers including Jacques Prevert, Yves Tanguy, and Andre Breton. The first sentence written using this process was Le cadavre - exquis - boira - le vin  - nouveau : The exquisite – corpse – will – drink – the new - wine. Hence the name le cadavre exquis or exquisite corpse. Since its development, the process has manifested itself across a  range of different artistic disciplines, commencing with poets and writers, but moving into the visual arts through artists such as Man Ray, Joan Miro and Salvador Dali. There have been a number of large scale multi-media and trans-disciplinary Cadavre Exquis performances, some of which are on-going. These include the live/video performance Synesthesia, presented annually in New York.

More recently, the internet, with its rhizomic multiplicity, heterogeneity and connectivity has provided a fertile ground for exploration of the Cadavre Exquis process, especially in fields such as digital arts.

The work further develops two of the central ideas which Joanne Leighton has been exploring in previous works: firstly, the use of pre-existant and non-original material as the basis for new choreographic work, and secondly, questions regarding authorship, originality, and the ownership and transfer of intellectual and cultural property.


For Exquisite Corpse, each of the 58 choreographers will be given access to the last few seconds of the previous section. They will then compose a choreographic response to it, a continuation. Subsequently, the last few seconds of this new material will be passed to the following choreographer, and so on. To start the process, Joanne Leighton will create the first « choreographic module ». At the conclusion of the process, the material will be assembled in the order in which it was created, with each « choreographic module » following its generative precedent.

This long sequence of solo material will become the score for the dance material, and will be used as the starting point and base for the construction of a work for 7 dancers.
For the final group work, the solo material will always be present in its original form, and will act as a guiding thread, a « fil conducteur ». However it will be expanded and developed by the 7 dancers across the duration of the full-length work through the use of a range of techniques. For example, duos, larger sections in unison, multi-layered renderings - all will spin off from the original «choreographic module», which becomes, in effect, a score to be (re)interpreted. This is very similar to the compositional technique in music, “cantus firmus” (fixed voice) where a pre-existing monophonic melody is used as the basis for the construction of a new polyphonic work.

Central to the process of creation of Exquisite Corpse, is the question of documentation and transmission of danced material. Alongside direct oral transmission or the use of video, what non-textual forms of notation, composition, documentation or description are available to us for the conservation and the exchange of choreographic content ?



CONTACT CCNFCB : diffusion@ccnfc-belfort.org

Made in... Series

MADE IN... SERIES
A site specific performance for 99 amateurs and 5 professional dancers

Made in Series... is a mass-performance choreography exploring spacial constructions, and seeks to reveal and explore specific architectures of chosen site(s) or space(s).

Made in Series... is a portrait of a city, a human landscape, a moving architecture, the mapping of a site. Created for both interior or exterior spaces, and taking into account a passing public, the piece is a series of presentations in the performance site. Through its accessibility, the piece encourages as great a number of non-professionals as possible to participate in a choreographic work. In doing so, the piece is inherently connected to its city and inhabitants.

This project, developed as part of Joanne Leighton’s residence at Pole Sud in 2010, is an in-situ performance for 5 professional dancers and 99 amateurs, performed at the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Strasbourg (MAMCS). The work process enabled the participants to immerse themselves in the act of creation of a unique work, linked to the MAMCS.


MADE IN... SCHEDULE

• 1 Technical visit to the site or sites with Joanne Leighton, plus the technical director from the CCNFCB,
• 1 Introductory meeting and a pre-workshop try-out, 1 Month before rehearsals begin with Joanne Leighton,
• 7 Workshops with the participants, Joanne Leighton and dancers,
• Performances

We  propose an initial meeting between Joanne Leighton and the organisers, to select the performance space. This can be followed by a first “taster workshop” for people interested in the project. We would need a largish space (e.g. stage or studio). If a large space is not available, we could work with and meet smaller groups of around 35 people at a time. This could be organised over an evening, for example.

• Workshop 1: Monday Joanne Leighton and 2 dancers
• Workshop 2: Tuesday Joanne Leighton and 2 dancers
• Workshop 3: Wednesday Joanne Leighton and 3 dancers
• Workshop 4: Thursday Joanne Leighton and 3 dancers
• Workshop 5: Friday Joanne Leighton and 5 dancers
• Workshop 6: Saturday Joanne Leighton and 5 dancers
• Performance day: rehearsal in situ with all amateurs
Joanne Leighton and 5 dancers, plus 1 administrator (CCNFCB)

This proposal can be organised over one week during school holidays for example, or only in the evenings. Equally this process can be organised on weekends leading up to performances.


USER'S GUIDE

• A not on the rehearsal space
The rehearsal space in which we work must be clean and warm. For this project, it’s important to have one large space or three smaller studio spaces for rehearsals.
This project can be performed outdoors or indoors. As part of the preparation, we visit proposed performance spaces.

• Costumes
Phase 1 : creation – the participants are invited to wear comfortable clothing, sneakers or comfortable shoes.
Phase 2 : performace, the participants are required to wear jeans, a shirt and sneakers.

• Catering
The organisers will need to provide or arrange catering of the 99 amateurs on the performance day. We suggest a sandwich, snack, fruit and a bottle of water. For rehearsals we require participants to bring their own food, plus a large bottle of water.

• Technical information
Depending on the site, Made in… requires a sound system to be set up.
A technician of the CCN de Franche-Comté à Belfort will be involved in the project (2 days). There are inflatable structures which we bring in a suitcase.

• Divers
Minimum age : 16 years old, but this can be discussed, we recommend younger participants to be accompanied by an adult.


Made in ... Series - Recreations

• December,5 2010 - Made in Strasbourg
Pôle Sud, Scène conventionnée pour la danse et la musique, Strasbourg (FR)
at the Musée d'Art moderne et contemporain de Strasbourg.

• April, 15 - 16 2011 - Made in Oldenburg
Staatstheater, Oldenburg (DE)

• June, 25 - 26 2011 - Made in Metz
Centre Pompidou, Metz (FR)

• November, 10 2011 - Made in Charleroi
Charleroi Danses, Charleroi (BE)

• May, 15 2012 - Made in... Vesoul
Théâtre Edwige Feuillère, Vesoul (FR)


CONTACT CCNFCB : diffusion@ccnfc-belfort.org

THE MODULABLES

It was at the Biennale of Contemporary Art in Lyon in 2005 that Joanne Leighton first started making works destined for non-theatrical spaces. Since then the company has performed in festivals such as the exterior Festival de Lekus Leku in Bilbao, Spain, Rayons Frais in Tours,  FRAC Alsace in Selestat, France, and the Ludwig Forum Aachen, Germany …

Ranging between theatrical work, installation and ambulatory performance, The Modulables are made up of a series of solo, duo and quatuor which can be combined as modulable elements of a complete larger work. Each of these self-contained modules has its own identity, and the works have emerged out of interactions between the dancers and other artists involved in the project, as well as the company’s ongoing choreographic research.

With minimal technical requirements, The Modulables are both mobile and flexible. They can be adapted to specific sites or events, for example at the Inside/Outside performance at the Contemporary Art Museum in Strasbourg/MAMCS where over 100 people watched and then joined the performance.

Involving both installation and ambulation, the flexibility of these events makes them appropriate for performances in public spaces, museums, art galleries, urban spaces, schools, theater foyers, exterior spaces – from street, to town square, to gardens. These works give dance a chance to seen and experienced outside of habitual circuits and the constraints and formality of theatrical performance.


CONTACT CCNFCB : diffusion@ccnfc-belfort.org

Display/Copy Only


DISPLAY/COPY ONLY
quintet exploring the original work and the copy

Display/Copy Only is the result of a collaboration between choreographer Joanne Leighton and a quintet of male dancers. The piece takes the work of other artists as the basis for a new, original work. In doing so, the work explores the status of an “original work”, the nature of copying, and also the ownership of a piece in regards to its creator, viewers and other artistic practitioners.

For 1 Euro, Joanne Leighton bought the rights to reproduce and transform a series of short choreographic works from 13 choreographers and architects*. The choice of contribution was left entirely up to the choreographers, dancers and architects. Some chose to create directly on the dancers of the company, others gave extracts from their existing choreographies, some gave improvisational tasks or detailed instructions.

The company consequently used this second-hand material in the making of a new original work. In making Display/Copy Only, the object was not to simply re-present this bought material, but to create an original piece using non-original material. As such, the original material has been substantially transformed, through processes such as imitation, juxtaposition, super-position, fracture, and de-construction. The work plays on the copy versus the original, appropriation versus creation, and real versus fake, to make a saleable object, a performance. The title refers to a shop model, an exhibited facsimile of a real object - but not the sellable object itself.

*Choreopraphers, architects: Pierre Blondel, Isabelle Dekeyser, Odile Duboc, Frédéric Flamand, Jean‑Claude Gallotta, Lhoas et Lhoas, Russel Maliphant, Steve Paxton, Fabrice Ramalingom, Rudy Ricciotti, Philippe Saire, Thierry Smits, Marie-Clara Villalobos ural processes into the work, an ongoing theme of her recent work.




CONTACT CCNFCB : diffusion@ccnfc-belfort.org

Made in Taiwan

MADE IN TAIWAN
Piece created and performed by Joanne Leighton

Dancer and choreographer Joanne Leighton engages in a dialogue with the audience and leads them to the heart of the choreographic process. The work takes the public on an exploration of performance codes, structure and the processes involved in the development of a dance piece.

The dance is a play on copy, erasure (of parts of the movement, or parts of the body), and the variations that a changing perspective on the same material suggests. The unfolding of the piece is permeated by fractures, interruptions and cuts, often created by the public themselves.

Alongside this playful approach to the choreography, Joanne Leighton continues her exploration of the integration of architectural processes into the work, an ongoing theme of her recent work.


CONTACT CCNFCB : diffusion@ccnfc-belfort.org

The Vigil

THE VIGIL

Joanne Leighton introduces The Vigil for 731 participants. Each morning and evening at sunrise and sunset over 365 days, a participant will hold watch for one hour.

The Belfort Vigil
The Citadel Terrace: 18 September 2011 - 17 September 2012

The Laval Vigil
The Perrine Gardens: 15 September 2012 - 15 September 2013

The Rennes Vigil
The roof top of the Chambre of Commerce: 30 September 2012 - 29 September 2013

The real voyage of discovery consists
not in seeking new landscapes,
but in having new eyes.
Marcel Proust


THE PROJECT
Site-specific choreography opens a dialogue with urban and social spaces, and permits us to reassess our perceptions and attitudes to them. Each reading of a place or a site is constructed socially and historically, and is intrinsically associated with the person who is looking.  The Vigil gives us an opportunity to reconsider these spaces, to engage in a re-reading of what they represent and the processes that they create.

Joanne Leighton introduces The Vigil for 731 participants. A participant each morning and evening will hold watch for one hour at sunrise and sunset for 366 days from the Citadelle in Belfort, The Perrine Gardens in Laval, and the roof of the Chambre de Metiers building in Rennes.

To be present at a specific site, to be an actor or observer, to participate in an action both collective and singular, and to rediscover the landscape at sunrise and sunset - these are the central elements of the performance. Each participant will have their own unique experience of one of the fundamentals of the practice of choreography: the nature of presence, the body in space.

This hour away from the hustle and bustle of daily life is an opportunity to fully engage in the moment,  to stand back from the world for an instant. At the same time, the participants will experience being part of a human adventure on a larger scale, that of a population, or a region or town.



THE BELFORT VIGIL
The project for The Belfort Vigil which Joanne Leighton put in place involves the population of Belfort and the surrounding region, as well as tourists, business, conference and event visitors, together with artists working or performing in the region.

Working in an open space provides an opportunity to establish a direct contact with a large public, both those who participate in the event, and those who come into contact with it unintentionally. The project is inclusive, open to everyone. For the watchers, there is no specific requirement, they can wear what they want, and carry out their vigil standing or sitting. Like the Lion of Belfort itself, for the hour of their vigil, the watchers come to represent the town itself.

Within the context of the work, contact with the public focuses on a number of specific objectives:

- to give a diverse public the possibility of participating in a public event
- to build links between people drawn from a range of communities
- to reveal the creative potential in the population
- to encourage and build partnerships between local cultural bodies

The relation with the public emphasizes:

- the creation of a long-term relationship between the CCNFCB and the different publics in its surrounding area
- the re-reading of the meaning attached to the chosen site and its position in the urban space, through a daily and individual presence
- contact between artists and citizens via a simple, convivial activity

The Belfort Vigil is a project by Joanne Leighton which has resonated strongly with a wide public, forging a long-term relationship with them.

At the end of the project, a book, The Belfort Vigil will be released as a memento and a trace of this unique experience. As well as presenting the context of the project, including the viewpoints of the principal partners, it will provide a day-by-day record with photos, commentaries and impressions from and about each of the watchers.


THE VIGIL

• Performance on a year-long scale of an urban space
The Belfort Vigil runs in parallel with the Made in …  Series of performances, a participative piece by Joanne Leighton which brings together 5 professional and 99 amateur dancers in an outdoor event. These performances share the idea of performance on a large scale, either in space  (Made in) or time/duration (The Vigil). These public works are not made on the scale of the street or a museum or gallery, but rather on that of an entire town or city. Joanne Leighton considers that the movements associated with The Vigil each morning and evening are both a ritual and a choreography around a well-established rhythm: the watcher joins the companion at a defined meeting point, the climb to the 22nd Window where the watcher remains immobile for an hour. After a photographic session and a moment to take down the impressions of the watcher, the two bodies descend to return to their work, their home, their school, by their own methods of transport, and in doing so, mark another trace of movement in the town.

The project incorporates something of the body in dialogue with a town, an exceptional and unique experience of time and place. Something reaching out, marking the rhythm of the seasons, daily activity, the flux of the city. And with the completion of each hour, a minuscule change takes place. Joanne Leighton interviewed by Gérard Mayen for Danser magazine.


• A rite, a relationship with the sacred
The repetition by a single individual of the same solitary movements, presented as part of a personal undertaking, belonging to a human chain, created by the collective and part of a group which flows from it, is an activity that starts to resemble a rite. The watcher is part of a community of people who he/she have never met, but the feedback, the word on the street, the discussions in the town, evoke the sentiment of belonging to a group.

• The random time
As described above, most of the aspects of the performance are chosen by the choreographer, and supported as much as possible by the team at the CCNFCB, as well as the Companions, the indispensable volunteers who over the long term accompany each watcher. These controllable aspects include the precision of the duration and timings,  the work with the watcher on the notion of presence and watching, and the design of Tovo and Jamil which works with the existing light to highlight the watcher in the shelter, as well as the shelter itself. However, chance plays a central role, both accepted and desired, in this performance: the surrounding sounds of nature, the wind or the town below, the light which is shaped by the weather, and the climatic conditions generally, all shape each individual vigil.


DEFINITION OF THE PROJECT

• Duration
The Vigil is a project that runs for one year.  Each watch lasts exactly one hour. The project involves 2 participants per day, and depending on the calendar year, gives a total of 731 watchers.

• The Watchers
Each Watcher can personalise his participation by choosing his own Vigil date: birthdays, anniversaries or any day of relevance, remembrance or significance to he, but he can only watch once. The project is open to everyone, without selection, according to the order of registration and depending on availability. The only exception is that the Watchers must be 16 years or older. The Watcher must be alone, without the possibility of external contact (mobile phones etc.)

• The Vigil
The Vigil itself is the period during with The Watcher is alone in the shelter, at the nominated start and end times. The Vigil lasts exactly one hour. In the morning, the Vigil starts exactly at sunrise, and lasts one hour. In the evening, The Vigil starts exactly one hour before sunset, and lasts one hour, finishing exactly at sunset. The Vigil is silent and whenever possible, standing and immobile.

• Preparatory Workshop
Each Watcher participates in a compulsory workshop prior to their Vigil. This workshop has two components:
- a short artistic workshop, lead by a dancer, around the concepts of presence and that of looking and watching. This allows us to focus on the aspect dance/performance/choreography, the idea of the body in space, which is at the heart of The Vigil project.
- an opportunity to attend to the administrative side of the project: The Watcher needs to give permission for the image rights, as well as given full personal details (profession, age, contact details etc.). We also take a photo as a record and to use for communication purposes.

• The Companion
The Companion is the person who in understanding and entering into the artistic project, commits to accompanying the watchers for a period of a minimum of 1 week, without interruption. They meet the watcher before The Vigil, and wait with them in the space associated with the project (the Annex) until the appointed time to begin. They run through the procedure of The Vigil, and offer a coffee or tea. At the exact start time for The Vigil, they take the watcher to the shelter.
At the end of The Vigil, they meet the watcher, and take a photo according to the established visual format. They also take a photo of the view. On returning to the space, they take down the watcher’s comments and impressions.
The Companion is responsible for guaranteeing that the scheduled times are strictly adhered to. The Companion is also responsible in case of problems or emergencies: extreme weather conditions, access or technical problems, or any other issues that might arise. In these cases, The Companion will need to contact the «on-call» member of the support team. The Companion will also need to inform the support team of any malfunction or issues in regard to the smooth running of The Vigil.
During a short training session before their first Vigil, the Companions will receive instructions and details of procedures to be followed.

• The Shelter
The Shelter is the space in which the watcher takes position during their hour of vigil. Where possible, it is set up at a high-point of a town. The watcher must be able to see and to be seen. The Shelter is illuminated (interior and exterior) during the hour of each Vigil. The Shelter has been designed by Tovo & Jamil, and is recreated and rebuilt specifically for each site and town where The Vigil takes place.

• The Annex
This is a heated space where the Watcher and the Companion wait prior to the Vigil, and reconvene afterwards. It could be any space - a utility room, an office, a reception area - which provides shelter and warmth. Electricity, running water and toilets need to be available, and it needs to be possible to have a coffee or tea. During the Vigil, the Companion remains in the Annex. This space must be secure, as it’s where all associated documentation together with cameras etc. is kept for the duration of the project.

• Quarterly Meetings
Each 3 months, we hold an evening for Watchers who have already participated together with Companions and other partners involved in the project. These evenings are an opportunity for us to give updates and information about The Vigil, and gives each participant (Watcher or Companion) the possibility to share their experience(s), and to (re)experience them in the context of the globality and continuity of the whole project.

• Closing Festivities
At the end of the year of the project, we will be holding a celebratory evening to bring together all 731 Watchers and their Companions, or as may as possible. This will be an opportunity for us all to both reflect on and celebrate the year of Vigil.

• Book of The Vigil
At the end of the project, a book will be published presenting information about each Watcher together with a photo taken at the end of their Vigil, as well as comments and impressions in regards to their vigil.


CONTACT CCNFCB : diffusion@ccnfc-belfort.org

Calendrier

MIDORI / Festival June events - Paris
06/06/2013 (All day)

Retrouvez la nouvelle de création de Joanne Leighton au festival June events à Paris.

La Cartoucherie
Route du Champ de Manoeuvre
75 012 Paris

Réservations : 01 41 74 17 10
www.junevents.fr / www.atelierdeparis.org

Made in Paris
15/06/2013 (All day)

Dans le cadre de June events, orangisé par les Ateliers de Paris, Joanne Leighton organisera un Made in Paris.

Infos : www.junevents.fr

Made in Ballet de Lorraine - Nancy
28/06/2013 (All day)

A l'invitation de Peter Jacobsson, directeur du CCN Ballet de Lorraine, Joanne Leighton et deux danseurs de la compagnie travailleront avec la compagnie du Ballet de Lorraine au développement spécifique du projet Made in Série.

Informations : www.ballet-de-lorraine.eu

Les Veilleurs de Laval - Clôture
15/09/2013 - 07:40 - 08:40

Les Veilleurs de Laval
Jardin de la Perrine du 15 septembre 2012 au 15 septembre 2013

/ Informations : Le Théâtre, Scène conventionnée de Laval
Tél. 02 43 49 45 91- www.lesveilleurs.laval.fr


Les Veilleurs de Laval se sont installés au Jardin de la Perrine à Laval sous l’impulsion et l’organisation du Théâtre de Laval.

Les Veilleurs de Rennes - Clôture
29/09/2013 - 18:49 - 19:49

Les Veilleurs de Rennes
Toit de la Chambre des métiers du 30 septembre 2012 au 29 septembre 2013

/ Informations : Les Tombées de la nuit
Tél. 02 99 32 56 56 - www.lesveilleursderennes.com


Du 30 septembre 2012 au 29 septembre 2013, Les Tombées de la nuit ont proposé dans le cadre de ViVa-CITE(S), Les Veilleurs de Rennes.