September 20, 2005 -

OTTAWA -- Jean-Claude Gallotta’s trois générations (three generations) will be performed in the Theatre of the NAC on Wednesday October 5, 2005 at 19:30. Using live performance and evocative video images, trois générations is a remarkable investigation into aging and the boundaries of dance. Showcasing a 30-minute contemporary work performed three times by three distinct generations of dancers, Gallotta’s rare utopian community of performers proves that dance is as ageless as it is timeless.

The twenty-four dancers perform the same choreography one after another, each age group lending its own colour and identity to identical movements. Groupe Grenade, children aged 10 to 14 (directed by Josette Baïz), highlight the gaiety and lightness of the very young. The professional dancers in their twenties and thirties who make up Groupe Émile Dubois, Gallotta’s own troupe, exhibit vitality as well as violence. Finally, the professional dancers and former teachers in their fifties and sixties from the Groupe Mézall (under Darrel Davis) display an interesting and versatile maturity. Between dance sections, the choreographer treats us to a film clip from Vittorio de Sica’s 1951 masterpiece, Miracle in Milan.

In live performance, the essence of a gesture lies in its volatility and transience. The initial gesture made by a dancer cuts through the air – then, unless recorded, it disappears. It no longer exists, however often it may be repeated. It is completely fragile and ephemeral, yet must be kept alive. Throughout his career, Jean-Claude Gallotta has sought answers to how one gives another chance to a danced gesture, how it may be retained for posterity. One method is to have the same gesture repeated by different bodies to discover the substance of the gesture -- what endures when the bodies that produce it are not the same; what it might becomes when passing from one body to another.

With trois générations, Jean-Claude Gallotta makes these questions into an entire production. The same gestures are questioned three times and they must not lie. Just as we would walk around a sculpture to know it from different angles, so the choreographer measures the successive iterations of the body to understand what remains of the “acting” body under the repeated gesture and what part of the gesture is perpetuated by the difference in bodies. Bodies starting out, trained bodies, bodies modelled by other pursuits: what transformations will the movement undergo? Will it change in nature? Will we recognise it? Will we still call it by its name?

“The improvisational ability and technical prowess is riveting …extraordinary stage presence, musicality, and sense of space … dancers perform this energetic work with grace and dignity …once a dancer, always a dancer.”

Carol Pratl, Dance magazine

“Gallotta still has his trademark language: quick jumps, spur-of-the-moment changes of direction, mid-air suspensions, then a pirouette! As in life, the dancers pinch themselves, slap their behinds, get all mixed up and head in the wrong direction.”

Le Monde, Paris

“…technical perfection. Gallotta tells us how exciting life is, and how much joy dance gives.”

Le Monde, Paris, 2004

“We’d entered a parable, a contemporary fable in dance. There are times when theatre can touch the human soul.”

Télérama, France

trois générations (2003)
CHOREOGRAPHY Jean-Claude Gallotta
DRAMATIST Claude-Henri Buffard
MUSIC Groupe Strigall
COSTUMES Jacques Schiotto
SCENOGRAPHER Jeanne Dard
LIGHTING Dominique Zape

This tour of trois génerations was made possible with the support of Association Française d'Action Artistique (AFAA)

Gallotta Danse performs trois générations in the Theatre of the National Arts Centre on Wednesday October 5, 2005 at 19:30. Tickets are $42.25, $40, and $30.50, $22, $21, and $16.25 for students (upon presentation of a valid student ID card). Tickets are available at the NAC Box Office (in person) and through Ticketmaster (with surcharges) at (613) 755-1111; Ticketmaster may also be accessed through the NAC’s web-site at www.nac-cna.ca. Last-minute tickets (subject to availability) for full-time students are $10 at the Live Rush Centre in the NAC Foyer after 18:00 on the day of performance only, upon presentation of a valid ‘Live Rush’ card. NEW for 2005-06! Groups of 10+ save 15% to 20% off regular ticket prices to all NAC Music, Theatre and Dance performances; to reserve your seats, call 947-7000 ext. 384 or e-mail grp@nac-cna.ca.

Photos for all dance events can be viewed and downloaded at: www.nac-cna.ca/media/

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Information:
Gerald Morris
Marketing and Media Relations,
NAC Dance Department
(613) 947-7000, ext. 249
gmorris@nac-cna.ca

Jean-Claude Gallotta
A native of Grenoble, Jean-Claude Gallotta first made his name as founder of the Groupe Émile Dubois, a troupe made up of dancers, actors, musicians and visual artists that presented site-specific performances. In 1980, a year after it was founded, the Groupe Émile Dubois moved to the Maison de la culture de Grenoble and rechristened itself Centre Chorégraphique National de Grenoble (CCNG) – Groupe Émile Dubois. Since then, Jean-Claude Gallotta has created over twenty shows, including Pas de quatre (1980), Movements and Ulysse (1981), Grandeur nature (1982), Daphnis & Chloé, Yves P. and Pandora (1986), Mammame (1987 version), Doctor Labus (1988), Mystères de Subal (1990), La legende de Roméo et Juliette (November 1991 for the Olympic Festival of Arts in Albertville), La légende de Don Juan (June 1992 for the World’s Fair of Seville, in coproduction with the Festival d’Avignon), Ulysse (version 1993), Premonitions (1994), La tête contre les fleurs (1995), Rue de Palanka (1996), Mammame (1998 version), Presque Don Quichotte and the Ceaseless one (1999). Les larmes de Marco Polo (2000) toured China, Korea, Thailand, and Japan. In May 2002, Gallotta created 99 duets with the National Theatre of Chaillot. trois générations was created in March 2004 with the Slope-Echirolles. Many of Gallotta’s works now feature in the repertories of the Opéra de Paris, the Oper am Rhein, the San Martín theatre of Buenos Aires, and Les Ballets du Nord et de Lorraine. Between 1986 and 1990, Jean-Claude Gallotta was the director of the Maison de la culture de Grenoble, which he rechristened Le Cargo, becoming the first choreographer appointed to head a national theatre. Gallotta has also established strong ties to Japan. From 1997 to 2000, he ran the dance division of the new Shizuoka Performing Arts Park, where he trained and directed a company of eight dancers.