Transports Exceptionnels
BEAU GESTE / Dominique Boivin (Val de Reuil)
Duet for a dancer and an excavator | Performance on Leipzig Market Square | No spoken language | No age restriction | Audio description
Whoever said excavators can’t dance had clearly never seen TRANSPORTS EXCEPTIONNELS. Created by choreographer Dominique Boivin, it has become one of the most widely seen dance works and a genuine modern classic. Human meets machine, small meets large, fragile meets overpowering. Münchhausen rode a cannonball; Boivin invented a dance with a monster from the construction site.
As a dancer in evening dress transforms the excavator bucket into the circus apparatus of his imagination, Maria Callas soars through arias by Saint-Saëns, Massenet and Bellini. The steel monster rotates, the hydraulics of its arm send it constantly rising and falling, and at times the machine rears like a horse. But who is playing with whom? Who is fooling whom? This David-and-Goliath duo develops an industrial poetry of wildness, elegance and silent understanding between two such unequal partners. Does the mighty bucket not also offer a place of calm? Does it not seem almost caring as its mighty arm hovers protectively over the dancer?
For two decades, Compagnie Beau Geste has toured TRANSPORTS EXCEPTIONNELS around the world – in public squares, on beaches and on every continent. In French, the title refers not only to oversized transport vehicles but also to extraordinary emotional experiences. Perhaps that is one reason for the work’s enduring success: it shows us that, despite all modernity and industrialisation, people will always find ways to reclaim poetry and emotion.
Both performances: With audio description + tactile guidance
For people with visual impairments, we offer audio description (AD) for some plays. This describes live what can be seen on stage, such as the plot and the stage and costume design. The audio description begins approximately one hour before the start of the performance with a tactile stage tour and the feeling of costume parts and props. You will then be given an audio receiver and headphones, the operation of which will be explained to you. Then an audio introduction to the play and the production begins. During the performance, professional speakers describe the visual events on stage live from a soundproof booth using the audio script.
The free audio description service can be used by approx. ten people per performance. Please register for this service at the festival box office. Admission is free and no ticket is required.:
e-mail: tickets@euro-scene.de
phone: 0341-217 16 48.
If you would like to take part in the tactile tour, please register with the evening staff one hour before the performance begins. If you are coming directly to the performance, please be there 20 minutes before the start so that the evening staff can accompany you into the auditorium and familiarise you with the audio receiver.
More information: https://euro-scene.de/en/accessibility
About BEAU GESTE
BEAU GESTE grew out of a collective founded in 1981 by seven dancers who had trained at the Centre National de Danse Contemporaine, then under the direction of the American choreographer Alwin Nikolais. In 1991, the company was restructured and Dominique Boivin, an Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters, took over as artistic director.
The company develops choreography around the individual qualities of each performer, drawing on what is distinctive about them regardless of technique, style or physicality. Its work also moves freely across different artistic contexts, from opera and street performance to circus tents, swimming pools and gardens.
Beau Geste’s productions are marked by the unexpected, a sense of detachment and a distinctive humour. Thanks to extensive touring in France and abroad, several works have become emblematic of the company’s style, including MÉCANIQUES, the educational performance LA DANSE, UNE HISTOIRE À MA FAÇON and, above all, TRANSPORTS EXCEPTIONNELS, which has been performed in more than 60 countries.
Source: https://www.ciebeaugeste.com
Credits
Choreography Dominique Boivin Assistant Christine Erbé Dance Sébastien Bruas Excavator driver Willy Defresne Artistic assistant Philippe Priasso Music Camille Saint-Saëns: Samson et Dalila (by Maria Callas) Vincenzo Bellini: La Norma (played by La Banda), Jules Massenet: Le Cid (by Maria Callas) Guest performance supported by CARUSO Umweltservice GmbH, Leipzig Creation Val de Reuil, 24 April 2005
Production Compagnie BEAU GESTE Co-production Scènes du Jura – Scène Conventionnée: nouveaux espaces, nouvelles formes Funding Ministère de la Culture et de la Communication – Direction Régionale des Affaires Culturelles de Normandie, la Région Normandie, le Département de l’Eure, la Ville de Val-de-Reuil
Transports Exceptionnels (Photo: Regis Balland)
Guest Performance Support
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.