#task1 - Module 2

Alain Platel. 

When I discovered his work, my whole world collapsed and crumbled, my belly, my soul got crashed. How on earth could this exist and how on earth had I missed this?

2007, back from a party very late at night, I turn on the tiny tv I used to have and watch ARTE. A woman is dancing, stumbling, ‘stuttering’, she is very skinny, uncomfortably skinny, it is uneasy yet intriguing, her movements seemed to speak the language of her tormented soul or at least, tormented body. 

A dance that wasn’t just about the dance, a dance that seemed to go beyond the body, an embodiment of what’s beyond. Humanity. Its tragedy. 

This is what I long for, Art that confronts. 

I have always been curious and attracted by avant-gardistes, Dada, Fluxus.. Chris Burden, La Monte Young. Something in what they did seemed off but was essentially ‘just/right’ to me. 

Once I had discovered the existence of Alain Platel’s work and whenever I could, I religiously attended each of his performances. I moved to London the year after and Sadler’s Wells was his home here in the UK. I know the work divises because it confronts. 

The piece that moves me the most and that is THE piece to me is ‘En avant, marche !’. 

The bodies he shows are not the beautiful expected ones. The movements neither. 

Even his background is unexpected: he did not train as an artists nor a choreographer, he worked as a remedial educationalist with physical and mental disabled persons. 

As an artist, he is self-taught. 

By doing, he has been learning. 

The experience taught him more than a formal academic training. 

As a dancer, I relate to this and this is probably why, on top of absolutely loving his work, I have this bizarre affection for this man I have met once only.

In 1993, he presented ‘Bonjour Madame…..’ one of his first pieces in a city where, by chance the IETM network was that evening. The whole delegation came to see the work and the rest was history…huge success, bookings all over the world.

I watched ‘Nicht Schlafen’ some years ago. One his latest piece. I usually step a foot in a theatre to watch his work knowing (having decided?) that I will, no matter what, love it. That one did not do it for me. I could not understand why. I felt bad not having gotten it, after all, I am a big fan??!!! A couple of weeks later Sadler’s organized a discussion/conference around this piece and I decided to go in order to dig the why and the what and the how of my strange sensation. 

The answer flipped my reception of the piece and got him higher in the esteem I had of him (1. sorry, that does not sound very english-right! 2. I did not know I could place him higher, he was already god-high): he had challenged himself. 

He was more than 60 y.o. and had decided to challenge himself. 

Huge respect, taking risks and reinventing yourself as an artist is somehow, the hardest. You could love everything you have ever worked for if the risk you take does not work out the way it should!! 

The challenge must not have been easy, I can see where he challenges himself and I realized that I was not looking at a piece, but I was looking at a process. This made me feel closer and deeper to his work. 

Uncertainty. 

Another aspect of his work is that, it is highly political. 

The example of ‘En avant, marche !’ with the representation of a suffering Europe ‘ Europe is present in the production’s music, its languages (Spanish, Italian, French and English are spoken), in its literature (Pirandello’s text is a blueprint for the show’s main character), its dance (clearly rooted in contemporary avant-garde dance genealogies) and, most importantly, in its choice to position centrally the European brass-dance heritage and repertoire’

The most radical political act of the company is that it does not tour to Israel. It works with Palestinian dancers, Israelian too - but their position about the Israeli government is clear, transparent and known by everyone. 

The bodies, cultures and stories represented in his works breaks boundaries and is democratic. 

Today, he has stopped creating and has teamed up with another company.. So that his legendary Les Ballets C de la B has now become La Geste. 

I admire how he manages to transform things. 

He started off his company in 1984. Nearly 40 years ago. And reflecting on this, I remember that it takes a whole life to become an accomplished artist… and that even after 40 years, there are still areas to explore, develop and keep transforming. 

Alain Platel is a real inspiration. 

Probably even… the only one to me within the dance world. 

Levy, C. (2011) NAC Dance with Cathy Levy. Alain Platel, choreographer and Director, les ballets C de la B (3/3) [Podcast]. Available at: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/nac-dance-with-cathy-levy/id333655103?i=1000091857461 (Accessed Jan. 7 2023)

Cools, G., De Vuyst, H., Stalpaert, C. (2020), The Choreopolitics of Alain Platel’s les ballets C de la B. Emotions, Gestures, Politics. London: Bloomsbury Academic.