30th Festival 2020

Main programme

Friday, 06. November 2020 // 7.30 – 8.30 p.m.

From 14 years

Saturday, 07. November 2020 // 7.30 – 8.30 p.m.

Theater der Jungen Welt / Großer Saal

Standard price 18,00 €


Pierre Rigal / Compagnie dernière minute,
Toulouse

FRANCE

»Press«   VIDEO CLIP  

Dance piece



Conception, choreography and scenery: Pierre Rigal

Music: Nihil Bordures

Light design: Frédéric Stoll

Dancer: Pierre Rigal

Guitarist: George Dyson



A man, in a black suit, in a space, a kind of box, with a chair. The space – at first, imperceptibly – gets smaller and smaller. The man can still stand and resist the pressure from outside. The box continues to shrink; the man tries to adapt, squatting, later lying down. Just like a Kafka character, he searches for a way out in vain.

The solo »Press« by Pierre Rigal premiered in 2008 and has attained cult status since then. It was shown throughout France and at all important festivals in Europe. The piece is melancholic, highly exciting, funny and dramatic simultaneously. Many signs of the times can be associated here: pressure to perform, artificial intelligence, interaction between people and machines, surveillance. As a metaphor, the solo stands for the fight for existence, loneliness, but also for

an adaptability in society up to a certain expected-unexpected end …

Pierre Rigal was born in Moissac, southern France, in 1973. He studied mathematic economics in Toulouse and practiced track and field in parallel. At the age of 23, he discovered dance and worked with numerous choreographers, among them Gilles Jobin. In 2003, he founded the Compagnie dernière minute in Toulouse, for which he created many pieces, »Asphalte« (2009) and »Standards« (2012), among others. For l’Opéra de Paris, he created the children’s piece »Merveille« (»Wonder«, 2018). In 2018, Pierre Rigal was a guest at euro-scene Leipzig with »Scandale« (2017).


World première: 15.02.2008, Gate Theatre, London

www.pierrerigal.net

Production: Compagnie dernière minute / Gate Theatre, London

Koproduktion: Rencontres chorégraphiques internationales de Seine-Saint-Denis, Bagnolet / Théâtre Garonne, Toulouse

The guest performance in Leipzig will take place with the kind support of Sparkasse Leipzig and Institut français, Berlin & Französisches Ministerium für Kultur – DGCA, Paris.