Midi-Minuit

« 1998, against the backdrop of Francis Poulenc’s Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra, both ‘monk and scoundrel’ according to Claude Rostand, saw the opening performance of François d’Assise, the very first show staged by the Centre Chorégraphique National at the Gare du Midi in Biarritz. Games, dreams, desires and a whirlwind of feelings clinging to the notes, this Concerto «not striving to fit a square peg into a round hole», the composer said mischievously, is a reminder of childhood wonders. Beautiful and joyful, always steadfast and strong, it will be filled with dancing to the glory of the Sun that gives us day and light. »

Thierry Malandain

” In Danse Macabre (Dance of Death), a classical music ‘hit’ in which you can ‘hear the dancers’ bones rattling’, from The Cuckoo in the Depths of the Woods and The Aviary, both taken from The Carnival of the Animals and melodies by Camille Saint-Saëns, Minuit et Demi borrows from the daydreams and poetic cadences of Pierre Aguétant, Armand Renaud et Victor Hugo. The mysterious heart is more difficult to translate, because if dancing is casting our obstinate hope into the future, the present day dies too young, and we can never say everything we would like to rhythmically express ‘in the wave of life.”

Thierry Malandain

” Subjected to the obsessive of the orchestral theme by Ravel, twelve dancers perform almost soullessly in an enclosed and limited space. When sounds the liberting finale, they break free, plunging into silence, now « locked out-side ». Commissioned by the Russian dancer Ida Rubinstein, a friend and patron to Maurice Ravel, this « Spanish character ballet » was created by the Rubinstein, a friend company at the Paris Opera with a choreography by Bronislava Nijinska on the 22nd November 1928. In the synopsis, the action took place in an andalusian tavern, where a gypsy dancing on a table provoked sensual euphoria amongst men. I departed from this storyline, updated by Maurice Béjart in 1961, to only focus on the musical motive that Maurice Ravel repeats in an obsessive way until the final apotheosis. The composer made no secret of the « music-sexual » style of this orchestral crescendo and finale. Instead of showing this erotic parallel, I chose to represent the liberty gradually won from confinement and took the challenge to confine the performers in an enclosed and limited space. This limit exists in the uniqueness and the mechanical repetition of the musical theme, which literally explodes in an intense finale, followed by silence, when dancers find themselves « locked outside ». “

Thierry Malandain