Encyclopœdia – DOCUMENT 2
DOCUMENT 2 is the second volume of Lynda Gaudreau's Encyclopœdia, a personal inventory devoted to the body in movement, a window on life that displays the entire range of human activity: art, leisure, sports...
The references, however, are not always identifiable, since DOCUMENT 2 remains a work on abstraction, on movement that is pointless, free, surprising – like an abstract painter working on colour. The choreographer's aim, we sense, was not to amaze but rather to captivate.
DOCUMENT 2 is a laboratory in which dancers play an active role; together, they conduct on-stage research that intermeshes with the choreographic construction.
The Encyclopœdia project incorporates both quotations and new creations from other artists; in this case, DOCUMENT 2, with music by Arnold Schoenberg and John Cage, includes work from European choreographers Vincent Dunoyer and Thomas Hauert, as well as a video choreographed by Thierry De Mey.
The piece is presented without any logical progression, as one might leaf through a book.
I am not trying to turn the body into an abstract image... for me, the body remains a human figure in movement. (Lynda Gaudreau)
Credits
To P. Mills
Premiere: October 4, 2000, Danses à l'Usine (Montreal, Canada)
Choreography and artistic direction
Lynda Gaudreau
Dancers
Mark Eden-Towle
Sarah Doucet
Material developed in collaboration with
Mark Eden-Towle
Sarah Doucet
AnneBruce Falconer
Scenography and sound direction
Lynda Gaudreau
Sound engineering
Dino Giancola
Lighting
Lucie Bazzo
Integrated choreographic pieces from
Vincent Dunoyer
Nudité, improvisation (2000)
Jambes, pieds, improvisation (2000)
Integrated videography from original film by
Thierry De Mey
Musique de Tables (1999)
Composition and direction: Thierry De Mey
Musicians and performers: Géry Cambier, Georges-Elie Octors, Dirk Descheemaeker
Original videography
Lynda Gaudreau
Marianne Halter
Bowling, Pétanque (2000)
Integrated interview of
Johannes Odenthal
Propos sur l’encyclopédie (2000)
Rehearsal director
France Roy
Music
Arnold Schoenberg
Canon in three parts (1934) for David J. Bach
Birthday canon in three parts (1933) to Carl Engel
Double canon in four parts (1938)
Excerpts from Arnold Schoenberg's 30 CANONS used by arrangement with Baerenreiter, publisher and copyright owner.
Dream (1948) performed by Stephen Drury
Costumes
Carmen Alie
Denis Lavoie
Lynda Gaudreau
A co-production of the Festival international de nouvelle danse (Montreal, Canada), Dans in Kortrijk (Courtrai, Belgium), luzerntanz – choreographic center at the luzernertheater (Lucerne, Switzerland), and the Compagnie De Brune.
Encyclopœdia – DOCUMENT 2 has been developped in residency at the luzerntanz – choreographic center at the luzernertheater (Lucerne, Switzerland) and at Dans in Kortrijk (Courtrai, Belgium).
Length: 60 minutes (without intermission)
Press Excerpts
The enterprise – which demonstrates the choreographer's meticulous attention to the formulation of the least gesture – is highly and uniformly intelligent, as is the deployment of movement within the theatrical space. Everything is set in motion by two remarkable dancers. The result is pure pleasure for our eyes and mind [...].
Igor, Hebdoscope (France), February 13 - 19, 2002
A choreographic study of movement that is remarkable, methodical, and constantly demanding.
Ph. S., Dernières nouvelles d'Alscace (France), February 1, 2002
[...] Once again Canada's Lynda Gaudreau enthusiastically collects in the second part of her encyclopedia, DOCUMENT 2, movements that are performed at a furious tempo by her Compagnie De Brune – as if reality might be lost otherwise.
Lilo Weber, Neue Zürcher Zeitung (Switzerland), March 28, 2001
DOCUMENT 2 seeks to make perceptible the dimensions of space and time, the gravitational pull exerted on the body...
Dance in its pure form. Gaudreau is a minimalist who opens new windows on the aesthetics of anatomy.
Regina Urban, Nürnberger Nachrichten (Germany), February 16, 2001
Like DOCUMENT 1, DOCUMENT 2 is entirely abstract. To all appearances, it involves a simple juxtaposition of movements and choreographic sequences executed without artifice and devoid of any message or dramatic intent. As in all of Lynda Gaudreau's choreographies, however, the result is so true and limpid that it raises the everyday gesture and the body's mechanics to the level of art.
Stéphanie Brody, La Presse (Canada), October 7, 2000
[...] In DOCUMENT 2 we do not find people suffering and weeping, but rather bodies moving and invading the nearly empty space with their gestures, with no other aim but to skillfully demonstrate the kinesthetic abilities of this astonishingly sophisticated human object. An elegantly surprising work, with an entirely natural beauty, it is bursting with curiosities. It must be discovered like a real encyclopedia, not only for its methodical approach, but also for the simple pleasure of observing and analyzing.
Andrée Martin, Le Devoir (Canada), October 6, 2000
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