Grand Evenings

1990

: 1h05

Michel Kelemenis

Kelemenis & cie

"The relationship between the direct sounds and the added sounds is the very focus of my attention.” Gilles Grand

“The stage will be divided into several spaces defined by the presence of dancers and musicians.” Michel Kelemenis

To further advance the long-standing relationship between music and dance, Gilles Grand and Michel Kelemenis create a show where music and dance are on equal footing.

The scenic work begins with the musicians on stage. This completely modifies the role of the electroacoustic sound too, which must then gain flexibility, speed and manageability to make it equal to and create a true dialogue with the musicians.

The composition includes duets, cello and trombone, as well as solo pieces for each instrument.

Through duets, trios and quartets, the 7 dancers continuously animate at least 2 parallel spaces that host choreography or provide a resting place. This dance seeks to make things always more fluid.

The composition of the ensemble is extremely sequenced. However, by exploiting a multitude of relationships between dance and music, asperities are erased in order to reveal the perambulations of these individuals waiting for GRAND EVENINGS.

Distribution

Choreography - Michel Kelemenis 

Music - Gilles Grand 
Dancers - Michel Barthome, Priscilla Danton, Dominique Jégou, Michel Kelemenis, Catherine Legrand, Bertrand Lombard, Claudine Zimmer 
Musician - Anna Rex (violoncelle), Bernard Metz (trombone) 
Music Design - CANOPE 
Costumes - Dominique Fabrègue 
Scenery - Christine Le Moigne 
Light - Laurent Matignon 
Stage management - Eric Maurin

Production

Kelemenis & cie, Maison de la culture et de la communication de Saint-Etienne, Théâtre du Merlan - Scène Nationale de Marseille, Saônora (Macon)

With the support Aspect - Le Maillon (Strasbourg), Festival de danse contemporaine de Cannes, Les Hivernales d’Avignon, Biennale nationale de Danse du Val-de-Marne, Adami, Fonds d’aide à la production du Conseil Général de Seine Saint-Denis, Centre international de Bagnolet pour les Œuvres chorégraphiques.

Echos

Libération Marie-Christine Vernay

dec.1990

Not without a certain amount of elegance and malicious mockery, the show depicts an offbeat conception of social gatherings. Kelemenis plays once more with codes, warping them slightly. In costumes of a tasty salmon color, he and his dancers, destined to garnish the toasts of a chic provincial platter, lapse into refined tics. Dancers, dressed in green as if to shake up theater superstitions (green being unlucky), are like the rustling trees of a private garden. Similarly, Gilles Grand’s music, organized around 2 live musicians, blushes, becomes shy, hides behind a bush, and only really surfaces when it is actually quite tipsy. The show multiplies its daring and minimal artistic propositions : the fact that it can’t stay in place, that it rebuilds its space according to the situation, that it moves musicians and their music stands. Gilles Grand’s electro-acoustic soundtrack plays with moods from classical concerts to bandstand music, amplifies them and breaks them apart by roaring engine sounds or by echoing the musicians. These “Grand Evenings” are light and clever.