1.Bakgrund The two initiators of this project, Henrique Furtado and myself, Aloun Marchal, have met in Royaumont during an 8 weeks masterclass about the voice in choreographic partitions. We decided to meet again two weeks in the studio in order to define a common field of interests and explore it. What appeared at the end of these two weeks was that we wanted to explore inuit singing together (we had a workshop about it in Royaumont) and how this north canadian tradition can be a source of contemporary music and choreography. April 2016, we were hosted by Menagerie de Verre ( a theater and a center for contemporary dance in Paris) for a two weeks residency.
2. Utgångsmaterial/Konstnärlig idé The project Bibi Ha Bibi, want to create a musical and choreographic event that uses some dramaturgical key points of a ritual. Bibi Ha Bibi is a musical and choreographed event where the music is entirely created live by the two performers. In Bibi Ha Bibi, the music is a byproduct of the movements performed and the movements are following the music. We want to explore this place where the meaning of what is happening is as important as the way it sounds ! And we want to travel far with it, going through different esthetics such as wrestling, couple dancing or kabuki theater, celebrating the (n)ever changing human condition with humor and absurdity.
Our starting point is Inuit singing, where two women exchange rythmical motives through throat singing. The audience is invited to create the performance stage by sitting in a circle in the fully technically equipped stage of the theater or in any other place (gardens, greenhouses, rooftops...) This artistic event is based on throat singing and dance.
All (or most of) the sounds are live and not amplified, emitted while moving mainly. We want to play with changing the identity of the artistic event by referring to theater, dance or concert situations. The first part is a warm up of the different ”instruments” we will use. Our ”instruments” are our bodies and some objects. In this first part, we want to introduce elements such as moving together in a pendulum mechanics for instance, or moving in circles.
We want to introduce some sounds or rhythmical motives we will use later. We also want to warm up different ways of relating to the audience (direct, undirect, being in a character, being casual).The material you can see in the teaser are from the pendulum warm up. These warm up sections are separated by moments where we change ”instruments” by coming back casually to our respective starting points where we have our ”instruments” that are for instance a pile of flour, a piece of clothe, tubes with pigments to be blown…. Those warm up sections can be from 6 seconds to 10 min.
The whole first part can be from a third to half of the whole show. The second part is the heart of the artistic ”ritual” where we don´t come back to our base and to casual ways of relating to the audience. This part is a journey somewhere else reusing the elements introduced in the warm up sections. During this part, we want to transform ourselves by performing actions, chants, dances in order to travel through different visual worlds, soundscapes, relationships in between the two performers and relationships with the audience by referring to kabuki theater, hard rock concerts, catch fighting, inuit singing or by not being present. Indeed, we don´t think we need to be visible all the time and that what´s matter is the experience of the audience.
We want to have moments when the audience is not seeing us or the rest of the audience because they are in a cloud of smoke, or in a very low intensity of light, or looking at a small dark cloud floating in the middle of the room. Bibi ha Bibi is not a religious or mystical ritual. We are more inspired investigating how artistic events already carry some dramaturgical elements that are found in rituals as for instance in classical concerts. In the case of the classical concert, instrumentalists come on stage as normal people, tune their instruments and it is only when they have reached a silence and a concentration that the partition gets played. We would like to reuse these kind of ritualistic behaviour and recontextualize them in order to make them appear clearer.
These dramaturgical elements are helping us to switch from casual to more dramatic ways of relating to the audience, and help us create a rythm/dynamic throughout the piece.3. Scen och publik Proximity is a central idea of this artistic event. We are very close to the audience, the audience is sitting on chairs and cushions creating a circle of 6 to 8 meters wide that is our stage. The event will always be ”full capacity” in the sense that there will never be empty chairs as we only put the amount of chairs that correspond to the amount of spectators attending the show.
We would like to explore this relationship to the audience sitting in a circle. We believe that the way we are traditionally using stages are not for sure the most interesting ones. These stages have been built maybe 30-40 years ago in an other technological time where living art didn´t co exist with all the media we have today and the amount of people attending performance art is not the same. We would like to emphasis what makes living art specific, which is that people are present in the same place as the performed piece of art. This project is aiming at strengthening what is the specificity of living art through bringing the audience to a strong feeling of being present where it happens by positioning the audience in close spacial proximity with dance itself.
Every member of the audience will indeed be maximum 3-4 meters from a performer throughout the whole show. As the setting of the audience allows maximum 70-100 people, we are aiming at performing series of shows in the cities that allows it (big cities). This way, we are also counting on spreading the word so that people that would not attend this kind of events would eventually attend it because a friend or somebody else has spoken about it and it happens now. We will also produce a shorter version to perform in public spaces earlier the day of the performance or the day before. Also a version to play in gardens as our aim to reach out to new audiences.
4. Tidsplan 2016 AutumnPlanification and applying for grants for the projectOktoberPre production: Residence Ménagerie de Verre in Paris2017 SpringProduction planning, communication planBooking of venues forSummer/Autumn, 2017JuneProduction residency: Alkantara, Lisbon7 augusti Applying to Dansnät Sverige, tour 2018Sept Applying to Riksteater's presenting days for tours 2018. Applying to Dansmässan. 25 sept - 8 october Residency Vitlycke9 - 12 october Production residcency Atalante12 october World Premiere, Atalante13 - 15 october Performances Atalante, Sweden15 - 19 october Shows in West Sweden (booking during mars/april 2017) 24 - 28 october Performances, Rua das Gaivotas and EKA, venues in PortugalNovember 3 shows at Ménagerie de Verre, ParisBooking the tour for 2018Booking Bibi Ha Bibi Garden tour West Sweden for summer 2018 5. Medverkande The two initiators are Aloun Marchal and Henrique Furtado.
They are both performers and choreographers. Jerzy Bielsky is a polish composer that we have met in Royaumont. Jerzy is very much appreciated for his radical way of composing and we believe he will be of a great help with composing the chants and giving rhythm to the piece. He’s composition is going to be based on the sounds we make with our bodies, chanting, singing. The dramaturge of this piece is Celine Cartillier.
Celine has been following the project from the start and we especially appreciate her eye as she is now focussing her dramaturgical and choreographic work on male relationships. We have invited Camille Rosa as our visual collaborator. Camille has graduated from the fine arts (beaux arts of Paris) and she is working as a scenography and costume designer. We want to collaborate with her on the different topics that concerns the visual aspects of the piece, including the costume design, the scenography and she will collaborate with the light designer on the light design. The light design is led by Carlos Ramos, a very experienced Portuguese light designer.
Benoit Lachambre and Alma Söderberg will come as artistic advisors. We will take inuit singing lessons with Marie Pascale Dubé, Hard rock singing Classes with TYT and catch lessons with Pepe. Producer in France is Aline Berthou. Producer and PR in Sweden is Possibilitas; Vanessa Labañino och Monika Wade.6.
Samarbetspartners In Sweden we have two weeks of residence at Vitlycke - Centre for Performing Arts and a collobaration with Dans och Teater festival Göteborg. Atalante will be the premier venue in Sweden and they co-produce the project with the costs of one week production venue with technique and staff. In France, our partners are Ménagerie de Verre in Paris and CDC Toulouse. Menagerie de Verre will organise the french premiere in november 2017 and is co producing the piece ( through residency, past and future, and funding the production). In Portugal, our partner are Alkantara and EKA.
Alkantara is co producing the piece through hosting us in a one month residency in june 2017. Alkantara is part of the DNA network. EKA has hosted us in residency in march 2016 and we will show a preview of the piece in the period september-november 2017. DRAC Ile de France.Andra samarbetspartners: Not Quite; They are interested to be one of the venues for the dance performance.
Länk: https://vimeo.com/154513229https://bibihabibien.wordpress.com/ www.possibilitas.
se 7. Övrig information Projektbeskrivningen görs på engelska för projektet genomförs i tre länder. Projektet Sverigedel genomörs från sommaren 2017..
Projektet har en hög konstnärlig kvalité och den konstnärliga idén kommer från Aloun Marchal fransk koreograf och dansare bosatt i Göteborg. Det är viktigt att den konstnärliga kompetens som finns i regionen får en spridning.
Projektet är ett internationellt samarbete med premiär i Göteborg, Frankrike och Portugal och är ett viktigt projekt för regionens arbete i att utveckla danskonsten samt för regionens internationalisering.
Projektet vill utveckla mötet mellan publiken och danskonsten därför är målgruppen från 10 år uppåt. Vår vision är att arbeta för att nå ut till publik som inte känner till samtida dans och på så sätt bredda publiken till dansen som konstform.
Därför tar vi också fram en kortare version som kan sättas upp enkelt i det offentliga rummet, trädgården, köpcentret och genom att vara i en stad flera dagar skapa nyfikenhet genom att också ta plats i staden, orten.
Possibilitas är projektets svenska produktionsplattform. För regionens internationaliseringsarbete är det viktigt att det fria kulturlivet kan ingå i internationella kulturprojekt och att Västra Götalandsregionen kan vara premiärplatsen för större internationella samarbeten. Vår kunskap om och erfarenhet av att arbeta med andra dansproduktioner, scenkonstproduktioner som sedan ska spelas i regionen sätter Bibi Ha Bibi i ett större kontext. Vår vision för vår verksamhet är att bredda uttrycken och representationen på de offentliga scenerna.
I alla våra projekt jobbar vi med kommunikation och publikutvecklingsarbete. Varje samarbeten vi har ingår i vårt långsiktiga arbete för att skapa flera berättelser och större representation på de offentliga scenerna och i de offentliga rummen.
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