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Maldonne
“On stage, dresses. Evening dresses, wedding dresses, nightgowns, everyday dresses, ball gowns. Sequined, long, puffy, fitted, oversized. Dresses that fly, sparkle, rustle, twirl, trail or fall. Empire dresses, corseted dresses, dresses that waltz to Leonard Cohen, or dresses that weep, poorly sewn, light, without underwire, tied at the waist. And then dresses on their own, rebellious, playful, set to a backdrop of electronic bass.
On stage, there are five women wearing these dresses.
Five women who sweat because they are alive.”
Leïla Ka
Following a trilogy that began with Pode Ser in 2018, continued with C’est toi qu’on adore in 2020, and concluded with Se faire la belle in 2022, Leïla Ka presents her first group piece, Maldonne. In this piece, the choreographer reveals and dresses, in every sense of the word, the fragilities, rebellions and multiple identities embodied by five female performers and forty dresses in an attempt to explore femininity.
Co-production La Garance – Scène nationale de Cavaillon, Théâtre Malakoff – Scène nationale, Théâtre d’Angoulême – Scène nationale, Théâtre de Suresnes Jean Vilar – festival Suresnes Cités Danse 2024, Centre Chorégraphique National d’Orléans – Direction Maud Le Pladec, Centre Chorégraphique National – Ballet de Lorraine direction Petter Jacobsson as part of the Accueil-studio, Les Quinconces et L’Espal – Scène nationale du Mans, Espaces Pluriels – Scène conventionnée d’intérêt national Art et création – Danse de Pau, La Manufacture – CDCN Nouvelle-Aquitaine Bordeaux/La Rochelle, La Passerelle – Scène nationale de Saint-Brieuc, Fondation Royaumont, Espace 1789 – Scène conventionnée d’intérêt national Art et création pour la danse de Saint-Ouen
Financial support Le Quatrain – équipement culturel de Clisson Sèvre et Maine Agglo, Ville de Gouesnou – Centre Henri Queffélec Patronage Caisse des Dépôts
Residency assistance Fondation Royaumont / Fondation d’entreprise Hermès
Leïla Ka is an associate artist at CENTQUATRE-PARIS and DSN – Scène nationale de Dieppe, and a collaborating artist at La Garance, scène nationale de Cavaillon.
Interview
Maldonne is a term used in card games. What inspired you to choose this title?
Indeed, when there is a maldonne in a game, it means that the cards have been dealt incorrectly and the game must be restarted. I thought it worked very well with the subject of the play. When you look at the situation of women today in France and around the world, you realise that there are many things that are wrong. And at the same time, in Maldonne, you can hear madone. I like that idea. It’s very difficult to find a title for a play. Putting words to it means revealing yourself.
How did you work?
We talked a lot with the girls. They’re great! Given the subject matter of the play, it seemed natural to me to discuss, share and have everyone make suggestions. When we started working, I had a lot of ideas in my head, material that I knew I wanted to work on. But then we changed the structure of the play a lot.
Like the previous shows, this one explores how women construct their identities today. Is this an issue that you feel is central to our society today?
For me, it is a central issue because I am a woman. And because I need to talk about it at this point in my life. But I think that building oneself as a man is not easy either. We are all more or less trapped in constraints and injunctions. But it turns out that I am a woman and I wanted to question that. Everything we carry as women that doesn’t necessarily belong to us. Things that belong to our mothers, our grandmothers, or even women who are not related to us at all. All these patterns we reproduce, all these imperatives we are subjected to.
All of this is symbolised by the numerous dresses you wear in the play. What does this garment represent for you?
I love costumes because they allow you to tell stories. Once you have defined the characters, the costumes help you get into character. There is a back-and-forth between the character and the costume. The thirty or so dresses we wear on stage, all found at Emmaüs or in second-hand shops, are fairly stereotypical dresses or ones that convey fairly clear images. So when we put on one of these dresses, even without moving, we are already telling a lot of the story. And they help us enormously to give momentum and impetus to the dance.
Excerpt from the interview conducted by Claudine Colozzi for Dansesaveclaplume
![Miniature de la vidéo Lumière du vide [transmission 2017]](jpg/lumiere-du-vide-transmission-2017-41278-512x295-c-default.jpg)
