Pavlova 3'23''

“The Dying Swan” is a ballet lasting approximately three minutes, created in 1907 by Fokine for the great dancer Anna Pavlova. This solo holds a very special place in the classical repertoire for several reasons: its form, its length, but also its subject matter—a dancer improvising, almost spinning, on the idea of a movement that does not want to end, that does not want to die. This solo, or monologue, is a piece that we all believe we have seen. It has entered our imagination (no doubt because of the figure of the swan) and our memories as a dreamlike, imagined, anticipated piece. The different interpretations of the dancers (Pavlova, Chauviré, Plisetskaya, etc.) haunt us and haunt the history of dance and performance. The swan is a specter and it is also the spectral figure of our memory.

This piece also marks a break in the history of ballet, as it is the first time that a dancer improvises.

This project is not about staging “The Death of the Swan” again, but rather using this evocation as a starting point to create a show that explores the idea of a dance of the end. Now that images are multiplying around us and invading our spaces, how can we imagine working with this idea of the end of all representation? How can movement and performance still be places where life and memory are inscribed?
The theme of contemporary vanitas (even if it belongs to painting) also plays a major role in this project, as it provides a space for reflection and intersection between materiality, the passage of time, and the brevity of life. The various aspects of Vanitas operate as a conjuration of the failure of utopias and disenchantment. This sometimes comical depiction of fragility, futility, nothingness, and death is a response to an eternal concern…

In a space riddled with holes and overexposed to light, several figures parade by: solos, group dances, contemporary processions. These movements represent resistance to sinking, to bending, but rather to constantly renewing dance and gesture as a force and a call to never end. An art of persistence. For the music, I commissioned several composers (Rodolphe Burger, eRikm, Heiner Goebbels, and Gilles Sivilotto) to create new, recomposed versions of Camille Saint-Saëns’ music. These musical creations will be integrated into the overall composition of the piece as an interrupted, endless suite of pieces that explore and renew this musical theme.

Mathilde Monnier

Created from October 12 to 16, 2009, as part of Montpellier Danse Saison.

For more information: www.mathildemonnier.com