We are finally together again physically after three years. In Saint-Chély in the South of France
After a one year break – we are back and are again taking up the theme of 2020´s digital Project. „Fragil – or the Parabel of Angulus Novus“, but this time meeting face to face. This year we have travelled to Saint-Chély in the south of France. Almost eighty participants from Bosnia, Germany, France, Rumania, Spain and Ukraine have come toghter to develope a dance piece with the choreographers. As well pedagogical team, the media team and the technic team. With over one-hundred people is our project bigger than ever before!
We are hosted in a boarding school. There we recieve 3 delicous meals per day and have adequate space for dancing, fun and rest. The dance hall is only two minutes away and in good use for the rehersals and so fun time dancing.
Our rough daily schedule looks like this:
Usually, the young people are woken up at 7:30 a.m.. At 8 a.m. they start with eating breakfast or every few days with COVID tests to make sure that everyone is fit.
Afterwards, there are various conversations and exchanges between participants and members of the pedagogical team, as needed, to align wishes and ideas.
Otherwise, the participants have enough time to get fresh and fit to start relaxed into the first dance session at 10am, which usually starts with a more general warm-up before it goes into the specific dance training and preparation of the piece.
At 12.30pm the lunch break begins, which starts with eating together. Here, of course, each individual has the choice between meat or vegetarian or vegan food. The lunch break then continues until 2pm, so that the young people and choreographers have enough time to rest, digest or, if necessary, take a nap. The second dance session will run until 4pm or 5pm. After that, the participants have free time to explore Saint-Chély or whatever they feel like doing, until dinner at 7pm. In the evening the participants have the choice between some time off, dance or content workshops. The end of the day is kept quite open, but from midnight onwards there is room rest, so that everyone has the opportunity to sleep.
Workshops:
This year, too, the young dancers not only exerted themselves in the rehearsals, but were also challenged and encouraged in the workshops. Through various dance workshops, the participants had the opportunity to expand their knowledge and skills in the individual dance styles:
Contemporary with Bai-Li
HipHop with Chloé-Lilla
House with Hannah
Whacking with Anna
Urban Contemporary with Safet
The workshops varied between learning the basics, complex choreos and creative work by the youth and young adults themselves.
In addition to the development of the piece, there were also thematic workshops. In these, topics such as sustainability, capitalism and interpersonal relationships were developed through small games and large discussion groups. There was also a workshop on the theme of the title "FRAGILE ou la parabole de l'Angelus Novus". The philosophical ideas of Walter Benjamin were discussed as well as the popular interpretation of the image of the Angelus Novus by Paul Klee.
There was already a preliminary work on the Angelus Novus in 2020 in the form of a digital workshop, which can be seen here.
Performance:
Since Thursday, 4 August, we have no longer been training in the gymnasium, but in Le Quartz - the festival hall of Saint-Chély-d'Apcher, where the piece will celebrate its premiere on 5 August 2022 at 8 pm. The participants and the choreographers stayed in the hall all day on Thursday, where they also had lunch, in order to get used to the place and to put the finishing touches on the choreography. Also on the day of the premiere all the dancers, the choreography team, the pedagogical team, the media team and the technical team were on site in the festival hall all day to rehearse, organise, seat, feed hungry mouths, operate the lighting equipment (highest praise to our artistic director Hannah Chandra Mahler at this point) and do everything to make the premiere of FRAGILE a complete success after more than 12 days of rehearsals.
The performance in front of an audience of almost 50 people was a complete success and the absolute highlight of the last two weeks of intensive training in this year's dance project. After the premiere, everyone celebrated exuberantly at the school.
