THE RITE OF SPRING (2007)
Concept and performance: Xavier Le Roy
Music: Igor Stravinsky
Sound Design: Peter Boehm
Recording: Berliner Philharmoniker conducted by Sir Simon Rattle
Collaborators: Berno Polzer, Bojana Cvejic
Management/Organisation: Vincent Cavaroc / Fanny Herserant
Production: Le Kwatt (F) and illusion et macadam (F)
Coproduction: Centre chorégraphique national de Montpellier Languedoc-Roussillon (Xavier Le Roy Associated Artist 2007/08), Les Subsistances / Residence - Lyon, Tanz im August - Internationales Tanzfest 2007 - Berlin, PACT Zollverein Choreographisches Zentrum NRW - Essen
Supported by the national performance network with funding provided by the German Federal Cultural Foundation as part of its project Dance Plan Germany
Observing the Berlin Philharmonic during a rehearsal of "Le Sacre du Printemps" in 2003 (documented in "Rhythm is it" DVD), Xavier Le Roy decided to work on Stravinsky's classic from an interest in the movements of conducting. Having no musical training, Le Roy ventured into a laborious process of studying a conductor's interpretation as if it were a choreography of its own.
An inversion of cause and function unfolds: the gestures and the movements that are meant to prompt musicians to play appear at the same time to be produced by the music they are supposed to produce.
When is one playing and when is one being played by this highly motile music? What is the moment before and after the sound, the movement, the intention to move, the motorics of the play? How much is our pleasure in listening to music rise in live performance conducted by a desire for, and a trouble about, the synchronicity of a well-functioning machine?
There are as many bodies as there are different roles and perspectives in listening: what hears the musician, the conductor or the spectator when hearing as a result becomes part of an embodied, inevitably visceral experience of movement and sound?
KAAI theater - Brussels2010/02/06
Festival Bo:om - Seoul, South Corea
2010/03/28
Tongyeong International Music festival - Tongyeong, South Corea2010/03/25
ICA - Boston, USA2010/04/03
ISEA, PACT Zollverein-Choreographisches Zentrum - Essen, Germany2010/08/20
TanzHaus - Düsseldorf, Germany2010/09/07
Sadler's Wells - London, Great Britain2009/01/22
TNT, Opéra National de Bordeaux - Bordeaux, France2009/02/05
Slodownia – Stary Browar - Poznan, Poland2009/03/21
Muffathalle - Munich, Germany 2009/04/20
Sawy Cultural Center - Cairo, Egypt
2009/05/10
Alexandria, Egypt
2009/05/14
Le Manège - Reims, France2009/05/28
La Casa Encendida - Madrid, Spain2009/06/27
Impulstanz, MQ, Halle G - Vienna, Austria2009/07/29
Teatro Maria Matos - Lissabon, Portugal2009/09/17
Esplanade Thetare Studio - Singapoure2009/10/15
Monaco Dance Forum - Monaco2009/12/16
Kampnagel - Hambourg, Germany2008/01/10
Le Lieu Unique - Nantes, France2008/02/08
Mousonturm - Francfourt, Germany2008/02/15
Ballhof 1, Tanzplattform Germany - Hannover, Germany 2008/02/23
Belgrade - Serbia
2008/03/21
CCN Montpellier, Montpellier Danse - Montpellier, France 2008/04/08
Stadttheater Bozen, transart - Bozen, Italy2008/09/20
L'Echangeur | Palais des Rencontres - Château Thierry, France
2008/10/12
Wien Modern, Konzerthaus - Vienna, Austria2008/11/05
Les Subsistances - Lyon, France (Premiere)2007/06/27
FAR, Théâtre de l'usine - Nyon, Switzerland
2007/08/17
Internationales Tanzfest-Tanz im August, HAU 2 - Berlin, Germany2007/08/22
Fondation Royaumont - Royaumont, France2007/08/25
Ruhrtriennale - Pact Zollverein-Choreographisches Zentrum, Essen, Germany2007/09/25
Festival d'Automne, Centre Pompidou - Paris, France2007/10/19
SESC Anchieta - Sao Paulo, Bresil
2007/11/02
Panorama Festival - Rio de Janeiro, Bresil2007/11/07
Performa, Baryshnikov Arts Center - New York, USA2007/11/15
Lignes du Corps | Espace Pier Paolo Pasolini - Valenciennes, France
2007/11/25
Dialoge, Mozarteum - Salzburg, Austria2007/11/29
Tanzquartier Wien - Wien, Austria2007/12/13
Gessnerallee - Zurich, Switzerland2007/12/18
Centre Pompidou, Metz, France2010/10/30
festival idans - Istanbul, Turkey 2010/10/15
Akün Theatre, Ankara, Turkey
2010/10/18
Festival Uzès Danse - Uzès, France2011/06/18
Festival Ecoute-Voir, Le Petit Faucheux - Tours, France2012/01/13
Mercat de les Flors - Barcelona, Spain2012/03/28
Centre National de la Danse Contemporaine - Angers, France2013/04/05
Festival Automne de Normandie - Théâtre des deux Rives - Rouen, France2012/11/19
Cultuurcentrum - Brugge, Brussels2013/05/22
FTA - Montreal, Canada2013/05/27
Plastique danse flore - Versailles, France2013/04/13
Alte Oper - Frankfurt, Germany2013/09/15
Kaserne - Basel, Switzerland2013/09/26
San Martín Theatre - Buenos Aires, Argentina
2013/11/20
Bienal SESC de Danca - Santos, Brasil 2013/09/10
"Movimiento Sur", Parque Cultural - Valparaíso, Chili
2013/11/23
Théâtre de la Cité Universitaire - Paris, France2013/12/05
Panorama festival - Rio, Brazil2013/10/26
zürich moves! Festival, Tanzhaus, Zurich, Switzerland2014/03/03
Le Petit théâtre - St Quentin en Yvelines, France2014/04/08
Experimental Theater, NTCH - Taipei, Taiwan.2018/07/06
Welt ohne Außen, Gropius Bau, Berlin, Germany2018/08/03
CND - Paris, France2019/03/27
CND - Paris, France2019/03/27
Théâtre de la Ville – Les Abbesses, Paris - France2023/10/11
