Sweet Rodeo
Manuel Roque (Montréal)
World premiere | Québec Focus | No spoken language | No age restriction
Following the success of BANG BANG and LE VENT SE LÈVE last year, Manuel Roque opens a new Leipzig chapter with a world premiere. This pas de deux centers on contact with another person: trust and distance, intimacy, and the emergence of a relationship. It is a highly intimate work in which Manuel Roque and Nils Levazeux swing together, towards one another and apart. Like a dancing Möbius strip or the complementary halves of yin and yang, they oscillate and rotate as their constellation and their view of the other shift almost imperceptibly. Excitement, harmony, enthusiasm, and maturity become stages in their shared journey.
As they circle one another like two atoms or planets, they probe the limits of an equilibrium that takes shape only through their presence. Beyond gravity and weightlessness, a new sense of eternity and detachment emerges as the pair begin their flirtation with trance – precise as clockwork and yet vibrantly alive at every moment. At the same time, SWEET RODEO, as an ode to otherness and to others, asks how we instinctively respond to an encounter: do we open ourselves up, or do we protect ourselves? This metaphor of timeless vibrations experienced together is a poetic appeal for listening and generosity.
Biography Sweet Rodeo
Trained in Theater, Music, and then Circus (at the National Circus School of Montreal), Manuel Roque quickly became interested in contemporary dance, where he discovered an immense space for exploration and creativity for the body in motion. He has performed for numerous choreographers in Quebec (Paul-André Fortier, Sylvain Émard, Marie Chouinard, Daniel Léveillé). He founded Compagnie Manuel Roque in 2013 and created DATA, at the FTA in 2015. The piece examines the mutation of matter through a choreographic writing that blends fluidity and endurance. 2017 saw the creation of BANG BANG, an athletic solo on the notion of performance. Its presentation at the FTA (also co-producer) in Montreal propelled the piece onto the international stage. Manuel then joined the ranks of DLD, which acts as executive producer and offers support for international development and distribution. SIERRANEVADA was born following a 6-month residency at the Studio du Québec in Paris at the Cité des Arts, but its development was slowed by the pandemic context. As of 2022, a new creative momentum saw the production of two new works. A re-reading of BANG BANG for two dancers was born from the collaboration with Nils Levazeux. Then LE VENT SE LÈVE, a solo danced to the sound of the wind, presented at Théâtre La Chapelle in Montreal in 2024, offers perspectives on finding a sense of orientation and balance in a chaotic context. SWEET RODEO a new duo creation with Nils Levazeux about the connection to the other, will open the euro-scene Leipzig Festival in Germany in the fall of 2026. Manuel Roque’s creative universe combines kinesthetic virtuosity with a polymorphic questioning of the contemporary human condition. His interest in the body in movement is expressed through the notions of integrity, curiosity, attention, kindness towards others and oneself, and generosity in physical engagement. His work attempts to create a singular dialogue between the athletic, the somatic, the political, and the poetic.
Credits
Creation Manuel Roque Choreography + Interpretation Manuel Roque, Nils Levazeux Back up dancer Marine Rixhon Costumes + Space Marilène Bastien Light Hugo Dalphond Music Manuel Roque Sound Jean Gaudreau Artistic Advisors + Dramaturgy Sophie Michaud, Lucie Vigneault Diffusion + Development Marie-Andrée Gougeon (DLD), Marta Oliveres Guest Performance Support Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec (CALQ), Vertretung der Regierung von Québec in Berlin Creation euro-scene Leipzig, 3. November 2026
Production Compagnie Manuel Roque Koproduktion euro-scene Leipzig, Festival TransAmériques (FTA) Funding Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec (CALQ), Conseil des arts de Montréal (CAM), Conseil des arts du Canada (CAC) Support Residenz bei Circuit-Est centre chorégraphique gefördert von La danse sur les routes du Québec und Conseil des arts de Montréal
Sweet Rodeo (Photos: David-Emmanuel Jauniaux)
Guest Performance Support
Vertretung der Regierung von Québec in Berlin
Main Supporters
euro-scene leipzig is institutionally supported by the City of Leipzig and the Saxon State Ministry for Higher Education, Culture and Tourism. Co-financed by tax revenue on the basis of the budget approved by the Saxon State Parliament.