The storm and the rafale – the gust, burst, or flurry – are both animated by the instability of air, a weightless substance passing fluidly between interior and exterior.

With Rafales, Bertrand continues his research into notions of origin and exploration of wave-like movements in a scene that brings together the fluid dynamics of wind, a material landscape and a couple. Like an archaeological site, Rafales seeks to make visible the in-between space through the first breath that unites and the last breath that separates. It is a scene whose setting could be the fluid world of the maternal womb just as it could be the sunbaked sand of an arena of antiquity. The duo is at once a polymorphous couple and a hermaphrodite being as they immerse themselves in a quest for shared pulsation, seeking a common rhythm. A dialectical landscape emerges between individual collapse and mutual stability, between breathing and apnea, between weightlessness and gravity.

Drawing on ritual forms, Rafales explores and exposes different states of presence through muscle tension, the vibration of sound, and the friction of skin on skin. How does sensory experience render skin porous and dissolve the contours of the body? How to stretch the organic, perceptual, and empathetic limits of two bodies interacting? How can the space of the stage can create a space that goes beyond the tensions of identity to offer a sensitive shared territory?

TEAM

Concept, choreography & interpretation | Benjamin Bertrand
Creative assistant & interpretation |Léonore Zurflüh
Sound design & interpretation | Florent Colautti
Set design | Benjamin Bertrand, Abigail Fowler, Patrick Laffont
Light design | Abigail Fowler
Costum design | Cédrick Debeuf

PARTNERS

Production | CBB
Delegated production | TAP-Théâtre Auditorium de Poitiers
Coproductions | TAP-Théâtre Auditorium de Poitiers, La Briqueterie-CDC du Val- de-Marne, SACD-Fondation Beaumarchais au titre de l’aide à l’écriture et à la production, OARA (Office Artistique de la région Nouvelle-Aquitaine)
CBB bénéficie du soutien de la DRAC Nouvelle-Aquitaine au titre de l’aide au projet, de l’ADAMI, de la ville de Poitiers
Avec l’aide de la Maison des Arts de Malakoff, la Ménagerie de Verre-Paris (Studiolab), l’échangeur-CDC Hauts-de-France (Studio libre), Centre national de la danse (mise à disposition de studios)

ON TOUR

19//
14-02-2019 | Opening of the Festival Spectaculare | Prague

18//
24-04-2018 | Festival Antistatic | Sofia-Bulgarie
27&28-05-2018 | Festival À Corps | TAP-Théâtre auditorium de Poitiers
25-01-2018 | Festival Trente Trente | La Manufacture-CDCN Bordeaux

17//
08-12-2017 | Grande scène des Petites scènes ouvertes | Carreau du Temple-Paris (short form)
29-09-2017 | PREMIÈRE at Plateaux | Briqueterie CDC-du Val-de-Marne
17-09-2017 | Festival Constellations | Musée d’art de Toulon (short form)

16//
17-10-2016 | Musée des archives nationales-Paris (short form)
20-06-2016 | Maison des arts de Malakoff (short form)