My name is Alizée
Let me offer you a danced walk on the spot
A physical, poetic and audio-visual analysis
Of this activity we call Dancewalk
In echo to the images around me
Of the 850 kilometers danced throughout the world since 2015
The primary intention in Dancewalk – Retroperspectives was to present a video compilation of the highlights of the Dancewalk project, with someone on stage who could physically and mentally link the images, story and movement. The project then became a theatre spectacle, a full performance, thanks to the distinguished presence of Alizée Sourbé. Dancewalk is dance travelling throughout the world. It is a geographic occurrence of body and dance, an activity where walking becomes dancing, where dance keeps moving over several kilometres and for several hours through a city or a landscape. The Dancewalk has been performed by Foofwa since 2015 in various locations and contexts, sometimes with other professional dancers or with workshop participants, and with the invaluable collaboration of local musicians. Paradoxically, Dancewalk – Retroperspectives is an indoor, local, on-the-spot dancewalk, a dance piece designed for the stage. It is an analytical and historical account of the 850 kilometres of dance performed throughout the world over 50 dancewalks. On stage, surrounded by a vertical and a horizontal video projection, a solitary dancer, Alizée Sourbé, mirrors the audio-visual dancewalks carried out in the public space by Foofwa d’Imobilité and others. Her presence offers a counterpoint to that of Foofwa on the videos. Alizée dancewalks on the spot for one hour, echoing some of the movements in the videos while showcasing the bare essence of the dancewalk through its coordination in a very kinaesthetic and clear way. Furthermore, she gives snippets of historical information on the various dancewalks in English as well as poetic analyses in French. Through this performance the audience travels the world together with the participants: musicians, dancers, amateurs, artists, professionals, children and all sorts of people in 34 regions and 11 countries (Switzerland, France, Italy, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Russia, Iran, Mali, Burkina Faso, South Africa, India and China).
“I was quite puzzled about how this experience would be translated on stage, and it’s wonderful! Congratulations to the performer who follows it to the end.” Olivier Stora, dancer and Head of Development of Cultural Projects
“Taking this project to the stage is no easy task and I find it works really well. It’s the history of the Dancewalk, and with the video projection installation, Alizée’s presence and Foofwa’s absence from the stage, and his presence in the footage, as well as the story, I find it all very convincing.” Olivier Kaeser, Joint Director of the Swiss Cultural Centre, Paris, from 2008 to 2018
Notice: The technical rider for the dance piece is quite light and simple, as our aim is always to adapt to the venue and to the conditions of the theatre. For instance, Dancewalk – Retroperspectives has been translated into Russian and adapted into German. Each new series of performances is subject to an update, either because new Dancewalks have been added to the video, or because Foofwa wants to add a few specific words in relation with the local context.
Performance sur vidéo // Foofwa d’Imobilité (et d’autres:-)
Costume // Aline Courvoisier
Lumière // Davide Cornil
Régie // Laurent Schaer
Administration & Communication // Alizée Sourbé
Diffusion &Production // Alex Landa Aguirreche
Production // Neopost Foofwa
Coproduction Centre des arts de l’Ecole Internationale de Genève
Dancewalk – Retroperspectives fait partie du ‘Projet GLocal (2018—2020) – ethics in local and global dance projects’
Neopost Foofwa et le Projet GLocal bénéficient d’une convention de soutien conjoint de la Ville de Genève, de la République et Canton de Genève.
Presse
CultuRadio – Neopost Foofwa Interview “Dancewalk – Retroperspectives” – SDD 2019 – Alizée Sourbé & Foofwa d’Imobilité interviewed by Anna-Maria Frusciante. “Dancewalking is like spreading the cabriole… It’s incredible! It’s super funny, it’s a little like a happy philosophy, joie de vivre, and it’s like him, this is what he gives us on stage and in the interview we did with him, after interviewing the female dancer… It’s full of joy and at the same time, it’s deep, extremely deep. I would say it’s a deep and joyful form of freedom. It’s not nonsensical freedom, it’s deep, rational and well thought out.”
Culturieuse & Le bruit du Off “Dancewalk”, the innovative dance-concept by Neopost Foofwa – 9 & 11 February 2019. “Standing in front of video excerpts of cosmopolitan Dancewalks, dancer Alizée Sourbé gives a live commentary of three years of danced walks. She is the link and the contrast between the filmed image and reality. In front of a vertical screen and standing on a horizontal one, she performs a harmonious choreography of sedentary walking in echo to Foofwa d’Imobilité’s international nomadic project…” & “The admirable stageplay of this presentation/show plays its part in its enthusiastic reception by a captivated audience. The footage is wonderful (well done to the technicians). Between screen performance and real dancing, live commentary and recorded sounds, the show is total and delightful. Enough to change the history of bipedalism?”
Ma Culture, Interview Marie Pons– Foofwa d’Imobilité, 10 April 2019 – “Getting this freedom which is in the body to flow towards the outside”. “I had to present the Dancewalk project, so I thought I should have a film to show in that context, and why not, have someone present on stage too. However, I feature a lot in the videos, so it would be insufferable, so […] we worked on it with dancer Alizée Sourbé. I thought it would be interesting if she did the opposite of this trip, so a minimum of movements. She dancewalks on the spot, reciting a text for one hour, it’s a challenging performance for her too, and you can see images of past dancewalks. I kind of wanted people to see the essence of the dancewalk, something very kinaesthetic, quite precise, clearer in its coordination.”
