Our Desires Make Disorder, Sine Qua Non Art

January 2022, Chaillot  & July 2022, Futuro Festival, Rome, ITALY

« Our Desires Make Disorder » brings on stage twelve performers for a political statement, a new ritual, where fear becomes power, loneliness becomes solidarity, communities become collectivities. When we stop loving our slavery, the revolution of the heart begins.

Sine Qua Non Art develops changing, elusive and assertive works. Founded in La Rochelle in 2012 under the direction of Christophe Béranger and Jonathan Pranlas-Descours, the interdisciplinary company develops hybrid and collaborative scenic writing. Attached to the body, each production relies on choreographic abstraction, musical composition and the porosity between the performing and visual arts. It draws the series of works from the many facets of human existence, the challenge of time, space and the artist’s place in this changing world. It reveals on stage our physical and psychic states, our impulses and our principles, our relationship to the world and to ourselves.

More information about Sine Qua Non Art
 

Touring dates 2022/23

18th Oct 2022, Malraux – scène nationale, Chambéry, FRANCE
25th April 2023, 
Festival Border of Nature, Polish Dance Theater, Poznan, POLAND
12-13th May 2023, 
Nuithonie, Fribourg, SWITZERLAND
16-17th May 2023, 
Bonlieu – scène nationale, Annecy, FRANCE
June 2023, 
Dance Week Zagreb, CROATIA

©Photos: Marie Monteiro & Xavier Leoty

Bugging - Company 1 des Si, Etienne Rochefort

Premiere : 12-15 April 2022 at Théâtre national de la danse Chaillot, Paris
– 25-27 April 2022 – POLE-SUD, CDCN Strasbourg

Bugging is a dance form that develops from the vibratory energy common to all urban dance styles. It reflects the systemic deregulation that is taking place, through the body. Between intensified twitches and body dysfunction, this dance frees itself from all its origins. It is born in and of itself, in response to the world around us. 

Touring dates 2022/23

– 8 Nov 2022 – MA Scène nationale – Pays de Montbéliard
– 25 Nov 2022 – Espace des Arts – Scène nationale de Chalon sur Saône
– 30 Nov – 1st Dec 2022 – Les 2 Scènes – Scène nationale de Besançon
– 8-9 Feb 2023 – Le Tandem, Scène nationale de Douai

Bugging at Chaillot, premiere April 2022, © Photo: Yves Petit

Watch the trailer here

Embarqued: Stories of Soil, Company SBB

BAM New Wave – 1-5 November 2022

More info  & tickets

Embarqued: Stories of Soil, an installation based dance-theatre work, centers around a performative shipmast that invites reflection and reveals post-colonial foundations and mythology. Interrogating existing relationships to memorials, we call up our African ancestral stories intergral to making our history united, enabling us to viscerally and holistically connect our country both forwards and backwards in space and time and through soil itself. The work is based in excavation of self and country, created with textiles, skin tones, metal ship parts and adamant dignity to the past and our present. Embarqued connects people, places and spaces through a time continuum by brainstorming materials of the past in performance with people of today. 

Embarqued at Duke University, April 2022 © Photo: Emmanuel Bastien

Watch the trailer here

Ghazal (A Conversation with a Woman), Cie Jours dansants, Marjory Duprés

Avignon OFF, 7-30 July 2022

More info about the Company

Three female performers tell the stories of Ebtesam, Lena and Afraa.

 

These three women are Syrian and live in France. The author, an anthropologist, and her sister, a documentary filmmaker, met them in Picardy and Paris. Together, they open up a space for intimate encounters – from the angle of sisterhood – and memory sharing around the principles of uprooting, violence, and in this case – war – and the various movements that this calls forth: revolt, social criticism, revelations of dominant discourses, friendship and solidarity that make the world. Ghazal is a multidisciplinary work weaving these multiple voices, through the filter of a subjective experience, which talks about memory when it confronts History.

Trailer

 

Look Who’s Coming to Dinner

new work by Company SBB – Stefanie Batten Bland
Premiere during
Crossing The Line Festival October 3-6 2019, La MaMa New York

Jerome Robbins Award–winning choreographic artist and filmmaker, Stefanie Batten Bland makes her Crossing the Line Festival debut with the world premiere of Look Who’s Coming to Dinner. Inspired by the 1967 Stanley Kramer film starring Sydney Poitier, Katherine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy, the work pays tribute to those who paved the way toward acceptance in love and life. Set around a transformative dinner setting, seven dance-theatre artists explore access and ritual as they seek a seat at the table. The choreography is set to a new composition by Paul Damien Hogan. Originally developed as a work-in-progress for Juilliard New Dances 2018. 

Review by Dance Enthusiast

Review by The Brooklyn Rail

TV5 Monde reportage

Look Who’s Coming to Dinner at La MaMa New York during Crossing the Line Festival,  Photo © Carlos Cardona

Watch the trailer here

Company SBB in France

6-25 May 2019, Residency and performances in Saint Omer and Mona Bismarck American Center, Paris
With Emilie Camacho, Raphaël Kaney Duverger and Jennifer Payan

16 May – 18H30, GERME, Chapelle des Jésuites, Saint Omer
22 May – 15H-18H : WORKSHOP GERME (info and RSVP)
23 May – 19H : PREVIEW OF BIENVENUE followed by an ARTIST TALK (INVITATION)
24 May – 19H, 20H, 21H, 22H : PERFORMANCES GERME (20 min) / (FREE, RSVP)
25 May – 14H, 15H, 16H, 17H : PERFORMANCES GERME (20 min) / (FREE, RSVP)

Germe is an experience that redefines borders. It is the seed of an idea, the beginning of possibilities. Germe takes place in the moment before definition takes hold. In either an installation durational performance over time or in a theatre, it is  the meeting place of art and science, Germe allows an intimate experience with the tendrils of an organism growing and in search of more… More info and trailer.

Bienvenue is an interdisciplinary work featuring choreography by Artistic Director Stefanie Batten Bland, original music by composer Paul Damian Hogan, and set design by visual artist Benjamin Heller. Bienvenue examines the willingness to share space with ethnicities immigrating to one’s country and the changes resulting from each new inclusion, addressing current global and local events during this time of prevailing frontier identity. 

Germe, Photo © Marc Lecureuil

Trailer

Bienvenue欢迎WelcomeBienvenidoأه بك

12-14 July 2018, Spoleto Festival of 2 Worlds, Spoleto La MaMa Open

Bienvenue is an interdisciplinary work featuring choreography by Artistic Director Stefanie Batten Bland, original music by composer Paul Damian Hogan, and set design by visual artist Benjamin Heller. Bienvenue examines the willingness to share space with ethnicities immigrating to one’s country and the changes resulting from each new inclusion, addressing current global and local events during this time of prevailing frontier identity.

PRESS
Spoleto Festival Umbria24 Review
Dance Europe Magazine Review
Interview with Stefanie Batten Bland @ Dance Enthusiast

Book Tickets here

 

 Watch the trailer here

Development and Tour Production for
Massala Company, France - 2018-2020

Näss, selected by Aerowaves European Dance Network as the work of one of the most promising emerging European choreographers in 2018. 

First you will hear the rhythm, immemorial and haunting. On these beats, seven male dancers come together, mixing hip hop and traditional dance patterns. Amid communion and violence, ‘Näss’ takes you to the streets of Morocco where modernity and traditions meet.

Näss © Charlotte Audureau

Here You Will Find What You Need
Encuentre aqui lo que necesitas
exhibition by F. Emmanuel Bastien

2 May – 2 June 2018, Soho Photo Gallery, New York

You will find what you need, not what you want or what you are dreaming of. I was struck by the utilitarian nature of this slogan painted on a store window. In Cuba, the government wage is approximately $20 a month. Anything can become a financial emergency, and everything is for sale from dead flowers to your girlfriend’s shoes.

F. Emmanuel Bastien

Manuphotos

Opening Reception – 1st May, 6-8PM

Argos Teatro and 10 Million win the prestigious Latin ACE Awards

Next shows: 19-20 May 2018, The Kennedy Center, Washington DC

After winning the National Cuban Theatre Award (Premio Nacional de Teatro) and touring across the United States in 2017 (L. A., Miami, New York), Carlos Celdrán’s celebrated autobiographical play has been distinguished in several categories of the prestigious ACE Awards. The award ceremony will take place in New York in March 2018.

10 Million is a depiction of the life of a young boy during the 70’s and 80’s in Cuba. A boy growing up in the tumultuous aftermath of Fidel Castro’s revolution. Torn between the ideals of his communist mother and his alienated middle-class father, he seeks to find his own way in a world turned upside down by history. 10 Million is a portrayal of a generation. 

“Without concession or censure, « 10 Million » offers a realistic version of Cuban history by delving into the upstart of the Cuban Revolution, the rejection of homosexuality, and the trauma of the massive exodus and even the disillusion in politics.” – El Nuevo Herald

« Groundbreaking play unearths memories of Cuban trauma »  Miami Herald

© Manolo Garriga

Bienvenue欢迎WelcomeBienvenidoأه بك Pentacle ART Showcase

14 January 2018, New York City Center


Bienvenue is an interdisciplinary work featuring choreography by Artistic Director Stefanie Batten Bland, original music by composer Paul Damian Hogan, and set design by visual artist Benjamin Heller. Bienvenue examines the willingness to share space with ethnicities immigrating to one’s country and the changes resulting from each new inclusion, addressing current global and local events during this time of prevailing frontier identity.

PRESS
Dance Europe Magazine Review
Interview with Stefanie Batten Bland @ Dance Enthusiast

Sunday,  14 January 2018,  3:30 – 4:30 PM @New York City Center, Studio 4

Photo © Benjamin Heller, Video © Manuproductions

El merito es estar vivo, exhibition by F. Emmanuel Bastien, 6-30 Dec. 2017

at Soho Photo Gallery, New York

« The streets of Havana are almost empty.  There is no music or alcohol allowed and most businesses are closed. The anxiety is palpable.

At the news of Fidel Castro’s death I went to Cuba to photograph flag-waving, teary-eyed faces along the funeral procession.

Instead, in search of capturing the mood during the nine-day morning period, I quickly found myself staring at fugitive figures reflected in the windows of closed shops. » 

F. Emmanuel Bastien

Manuphotos

Opening reception, 5 December 2017, Soho Photo Gallery

El merito es estar vivo, © F. Emmanuel Bastien, Manuphotos

10 Million by Argos Teatro, Cuba at Encuentro de las Americas, L.A., November 2017

written & directed by Carlos Celdrán (Premio nacional de teatro)
Encuentro de las Americas, 5-17 November 2017 – book tickets

10 Million is a depiction of the life of a young boy during the 70’s and 80’s in Cuba. A boy growing up in the tumultuous aftermath of Fidel Castro’s revolution. Torn between the ideals of his communist mother and his alienated middle-class father, he seeks to find his own way in a world turned upside down by history. 10 Million is a portrayal of a generation. 

“Without concession or censure, « 10 Million » offers a realistic version of Cuban history by delving into the upstart of the Cuban Revolution, the rejection of homosexuality, and the trauma of the massive exodus and even the disillusion in politics.” – El Nuevo Herald

« Groundbreaking play unearths memories of Cuban trauma »  Miami Herald

©Manolo Garriga

World premiere of Bienvenue, New York, 25-28 May, 2017

at LaMaMa Moves! Dance Festival

Bienvenue is an interdisciplinary work featuring choreography by Artistic Director Stefanie Batten Bland, original music by composer Paul Damian Hogan, and set design by visual artist Benjamin Heller. Bienvenue examines the willingness to share space with ethnicities immigrating to one’s country and the changes resulting from each new inclusion, addressing current global and local events during this time of prevailing frontier identity.

PRESS
Dance Europe Magazine Review
Review by Solomons Says
Interview with Stefanie Batten Bland @ Dance Enthusiast
Interview with the French Embassy in New York
ABC NY TV reportage on the making of Welcome with the community at University Settlement

Bienvenue, Company Stefanie Batten Bland, © Theo Coté

Theatrum Mundi, Astragali Teatro in Paris, 26 May, 2017

at Le 100 ECS in partnership with La Maison d’Europe et d’Orient

The Repetition – a performance directed by Fabio Tolledi
A journey through the performing arts in Europe. International cast of actors from Bulgaria, France, Greece, Israel, Italy, Lithuania, Netherlands & Turkey.
Watch the Rai3 video (in Italian)

La Répétition, mise en scène de Fabio Tolledi
Une compagnie ambulante tente de mettre en scène une comédie classique, l’Amphitryon de Plaute. Mais rien ne marche. On ne trouve pas le théâtre. Les acteurs n’arrivent pas. On ne sait plus très bien ce qui se dessine : un spectacle de variétés, une comédie grotesque du siècle dernier, ou encore une histoire vieille de deux millénaires ?  Les genres sont mélangés : Comédie, ou roman d’espionnage ? Drame sentimental, ou musical ? Farce, ou tragédie ? …

More information on the project website

Astragali Teatro, La Proba, © Marina Colucci

US Premiere of 10 Million, Argos Teatro, Cuba, March 2017

written & directed by Carlos Celdrán (Premio nacional de teatro)
Miami, 24-26 March, 2017 & NYC, 29-30 March, 2017

10 Million is a depiction of the life of a young boy during the 70’s and 80’s in Cuba. A boy growing up in the tumultuous aftermath of Fidel Castro’s revolution. Torn between the ideals of his communist mother and his alienated middle-class father, he seeks to find his own way in a world turned upside down by history. 10 Million is a portrayal of a generation. 

“Without concession or censure, « 10 Million » offers a realistic version of Cuban history by delving into the upstart of the Cuban Revolution, the rejection of homosexuality, and the trauma of the massive exodus and even the disillusion in politics.” – El Nuevo Herald

« Groundbreaking play unearths memories of Cuban trauma »  Miami Herald

Bienvenue, Company Stefanie Batten Bland, © Theo Coté

A Different American Dream at Cinema Village, New York, 7-9 January 2017

a film by Simon Brook & Jane Wells

In the magical Badlands of North Dakota, the Fort Berthold Indian reservation sits right in the middle of the largest shale field in North America. Members of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation find themselves locked in a Faustian struggle: accept the potential financial enrichment of the tribe from oil extraction at the cost of the future health of their ancestral homelands.

A Different American Dream explores their dilemma through the eyes of tribal members as they pursue what turn out to be few options. 

The film is an elegy of the magnificent landscape as it is being decimated by oil extraction and a people, victims of economic imprisonment, struggling to defend their culture, their history and their future.

« More true to its title than viewers may expect, the doc cares more about underlying principles than the details of any one controversy. » – The Hollywood Reporter

Fragmented Reflections, exhibition by F. Emmanuel Bastien, 5-29 October 2016

at Soho Photo Gallery, New York

« I am drawn to the dimensional contradictions within reflections.

The reflections flatten onto one plane multiple dimensional layers that would not otherwise interact, revealing a new dimension.

I watch this moving canvas: the glass, what is behind the glass, the fragments reflected in the glass and what evolves in between, waiting to create a new narrative, shrouded in mystery, dreaminess and uncertainty. »

F. Emmanuel Bastien

Siempre listo para la próxima tormenta, Fragmented Reflections, © F. Emmanuel Bastien, Manuphotos

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