Angelin Preljocaj once again testifies to his attraction to philosophy. Obsessed with themes related to the transcendence of bodies, he takes as his pretext this time audio recordings of courses taught by Gilles Deleuze at the University of Paris VIII in Vincennes in the 1980s. In these sound archives, Deleuze humorously and topically addresses Spinoza's reflections on the question of the body and movement in his emblematic book, L'Éthique.
In this project, Gilles Deleuze's recorded voice and its substantive purpose intertwine with the powerful, sensual, and revolutionary music of Jimi Hendrix to resonate with Spinoza's scolias. Angelin Preljocaj explores a new territory of choreographic research in which the body, as the universal object we all know, becomes a medium that raises questions about our world.
Voices are a frequent part of the choreographer's creations, albeit in very different registers: in 1995, L'Anoure presented a live reading of Pascal Quignard's libretto. In 2009, Angelin Preljocaj gave a solo performance of Jean Genet's essay Le Funambule (The Tightrope Walker). In 2012, French actor Laurent Cazanave dubbed the words of Laurent Mauvignier in Ce que j'appelle oubli. And in 2019, Preljocaj recreated Franz Schubert's Winterreise, a piece for piano and voice, with dancers sharing the stage with baritone singer Thomas Tatzl. Voice and philosophy are also essential in Empty moves, a three-part creation that Preljocaj began in 2004, in which he uses an incredible soundtrack: a puzzling performance by John Cage in Milan, inspired by philosopher Henry David Thoreau's essay Civil Disobedience, in which Cage simply pronounces unintelligible phonemes

CREATION 2021
Choreography Angelin Preljocaj
Recorded Voice Gilles Deleuze
Jimi Hendrix Music
Lights Éric Soyer
Assistant art director Youri Aharon Van den Bosch
Choreologist Dany Lévêque
Dancers Baptiste Coissieu, Matt Emig, Clara Freschel, Isabel García López, Florette Jager, Tommaso Marchignoli, Zoë McNeil, Redi Shtylla
Production Ballet Preljocaj
Coproduction Festival Montpellier Danse 2021, Le Centquatre-Paris, Le Rive Gauche - Scène conventionnée Danse de Saint-Etienne-du- Rouvray
Special thanks to Olivier Raillard
Premiere at the Festival Montpellier Danse 2021