November 11, 2005 -

OTTAWA -- D’avant  -- sung, danced, and choreographed by Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Damien Jalet, Juan Kruz Diaz de Garaio Esnaola, and Luc Dunberry -- will be performed twice only in the Theatre of the NAC on Friday, December 2 and Saturday, December 3, 2005 at 19:30. This is the North American premiere of this incredible work, and its only appearance in Canada and the United States. A sizzling success with critics and audiences wherever it has appeared, crowds are lining up and fighting for tickets to D’avant all over Europe. People who liked Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui’s work on Foi by Les Ballets C. de la B. (at the NAC in April 2003) will LOVED’avant!

Medieval madrigals, contemporary dance, soccer shenanigans, and black humour: the creation of D’avant originated with Juan Kruz Diaz de Garaio Esnaola (from the dance ensemble of the Schaubühne am Lehniner Platz in Berlin) who wanted to explore his fascination with singing, movement, and theatre. He invited the others to join him, and when Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui -- an Ottawa favourite and one of Europe’s hottest choreographers -- and Damien Jalet (both from Les Ballets C. de la B. in Ghent, Belgium) and Luc Dunberry (a Canadian dancer, also from the Schaubühne) first met, they discovered a shared passion for the richly-textured vocal music of the Middle Ages. They quickly decided to create and perform in a quirky and original joint production focusing on four dancing singers – or four singing dancers.

All four artists had voice training, and, using the vocal music of the Middle Ages as a starting point, they have created a stunning mosaic of song and movement. Esnaola, Cherkaoui, Jalet, and Dunberry have co-directed and co-choreographed a wildly original theatrical tour de force. Set on a construction site, D’avant uses incendiary images to dream its way through the ages. Three men play soccer with the head of Damien Jalet to the accompaniment of 12th century Aquitanian polyphony; two men climb all over each other, one into the other’s jacket, so that one cannot tell whose legs, arms, or rump belongs to whom; in the middle of the vibrating Gregorian chants, the quartet performs an a cappella rendition of Bonnie Tyler’s “Total Eclipse of the Heart”, followed by children’s birthday party games, involving throwing beer cans, wigs, and sand bombs … and flagellation; then, disaster -- Juan Kruz sets up a game of dominoes with clay bricks that causes scaffolding to collapse with catastrophic clamour onstage.

Taking the world by storm, D’avant rejects a confined, linear narrative, and – pulsating with extraordinary images and lacerating wit -- relates stories from the past with a provocative present-day outlook.

“A magnificent piece, wide-ranging in its simplicity, full of humanity, mischievousness, and humour.”

Frédérique Doyon, Le Devoir

“Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui stretches his arms apart, wide as a crucifix, while the others belt out a Venetian madrigal from the scaffolding in the background. Piteously beautiful. The crucified man, who looks like a scarecrow and who can also tap dance, has a shoe flying at his head, loses his trousers, the other three dance on his body, tie him to a bell rope, pull him up the scaffolding, and ring the bell with him.”

Arnd Wesemann, Süddeutsche Zeitung, 2002

D’avant(2002)
STAGE DIRECTION/ CHOREOGRAPHY/DANCE/SONG
Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Juan Kruz Diaz de Garaio Esnaola, Luc Dunberry, Damien Jalet

MUSICAL DIRECTION/COMPOSITION
Juan Kruz Diaz de Garaio Esnaola

STAGE DESIGN Thomas Schenk
COSTUME DESIGN Sylvia Hagen-Schäfer  LIGHTING DESIGN Rudolf Heckerodt

A Sasha Waltz & Guests Production
In cooperation with Schaubühne vom Lehniner Platz Berlin
A co-production with Les Ballets C. de la B./Ghent, Festival de Marseille/Festival le Carreau/Scene Nationale de Forbach and Théâtre de la Ville, Paris

A free post-show chat with the artists will take place immediately following the performance

Related Film Screening

Körper
58 minutes – Germany (2000)
Direction by Jörg Jeshel   Choreography by Sasha Waltz
A co-production of ZDF, 3 Sat International Satellite TV, and the Goethe Institut

Created by one of Europe’s leading choreographers, Körper(Bodies) is the first in a triptych of works by Sasha Waltz that investigates humans and their bodies. Originally created for the stage and adapted for television, this piece for 13 dancers links architecture, science, and history with the body and movement to examine issues of emotion, morality, and mortality.

“(…) a bizarre and inventive mosaic of (often naked) body parts (…) it wittily and cogently reminds us that architecture is almost like our shell, defining us as much as the freckles on our skin, our habits, our relationships”.

Mary Brennan, The Herald (Scotland)

Saturday December 3, 2005 ~ 14:00
Auditorium, Library and Archives Canada ~ 395 Wellington Street
$6 for Canadian Film Institute members; $9 for non-members
Presented in partnership with the Canadian Film Institute and the Goethe Institut

A Question and Answer session with the dancers will follow the screening

D’avant will be performed in the Theatre of the National Arts Centre on Friday December 2 and Saturday December 3, 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

ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES

Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui
Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui studied at P.A.R.T.S. (Performing Arts Research and Training Studios) in Brussels, the contemporary dance school directed by Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker. There he was mostly influenced by the dance technique courses of William Forsythe (taught by Elisabeth Corbett, Thomas McManus), Pina Bausch (Dominique Dusjinski) and Trisha Brown (Lance Gries), as well as by theatre classes (Damiaan De Schrijver/STAN), sociology (Rudi Laermans), the history of dance, and of course by the Rosas repertoire. In 1995, he received the first prize for the Best Belgian Dance Solo in Ghent, in a competition launched by Alain Platel, founder of Les Ballets C. de la B. Alain then invited him to take part in Iets op Bach (1997-1998), a dance-theatre piece which toured the world. Rien de rien (2000), his first choreography as a member of the artistic core of Les Ballets C. de la B., toured throughout Europe (London, Paris, Copenhagen, Porto), winning the Special Prize in Belgrade at the BITEF festival in 2001. In Rien de rien, he worked closely with the Flemish cello player Roel Dieltiens (on music by Kodaly, Ligeti, Gubaidulina), who shares the stage with the dancers. In this piece, Cherkaoui also worked with Damien Jalet, singer/dancer with Les Ballets C. de la B., who initiated him in the use of traditional Italian songs (and the ethno-musicology work of Giovanna Marini). In July 2002, he took part in the ‘Vif du Sujet’ at the Avignon festival with his solo it (2002), directed by Wim Vandekeybus, with whom he worked closely on the choreography. In September 2002, he co-directed with Damien Jalet, Luc Dunberry and Juan Kruz Diaz de Garaio Esnaola (dancers/singers with Sasha Waltz), the choreography for D’avant (2002) for the Schaubühne am Lehniner Platz in Berlin. This piece combines song (medieval songs from the 13th century) with contemporary dance, and was the first step towards Foi. In March 2003, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui showed his next choreography for Les Ballets C. de la B., Foi, a project that pursues the symbiosis between live music (14th century medieval music and traditional peasant songs) and contemporary dance and theatre. This time his musical partners were Dirk Snellings and his Capilla Flamenca (for the period music of Ars Nova) and Christine Leboutte (who has worked with Giovanna Marini) for the traditional Italian songs. In May 2004, Foi was awarded the prize for best choreography at the Movimentos Awards in Wolfsburg, Germany.

Juan Kruz Diaz de Garaio Esnaola
Born in 1966 in Legazpi, Spain, Juan began studying music at the age of 6 at the Conservatorio Superior de Música de San Sebastián, and later he studied Early Music at the Academie voor Oude Muziek Amsterdam, developing a career as a countertenor. He danced for the first time in Marcelo Evelin’s choreography Muzot (1990). He has worked since with Pieter C. Scholten, Emio Greco, Arthur Rosenfeld, Luc Dunberry, and with Lloyd Newson in the DV8 Physical Theatre production Enter Achilles, among others. As dancer, actor, and choreographer, he has taken part in various award-winning films, such as (Left) between us, Georgia, Le Coeur volé, Konings Kinder, Allee der Kosmonauten, and Enter Achilles. He has danced since 1996 with Sasha Waltz. As well as dancing in her choreographies Allee der Kosmonauten, Zweiland, and Na Zemlje, he is responsible for their musical concept and part of the scores. From 1999 to 2005, he was a member of the Dance ensemble of the Schaubühne am Lehniner Platz while Sasha Waltz was one of its co-directors; he could be seen in the choreographies Körper, 17-25/4, noBody, insideout and Impromptus by Sasha Waltz. Together with Luc Dunberry, Juan created anything else (1998) and The rest of you (2000), and he co-directed and co-choreographed D’avant (2002), with Luc Dunberry, Damien Jalet, and Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui; he was also responsible for the musical concept and direction. In collaboration with the Australian music performer Joanna Dudley, he created the award-winning music-theatre piece My dearest My fairest, and he directed her solo performance He taught me to yodel. In 2004, he devised and created Colours may fade with friction read instructions carefully store in a cool and dry place no side effects, again with Joanna Dudley. Since March 2005, he has been a member of Sasha Waltz & Guests. He regularly teaches dance companies and at dance schools (Folkwang Tanzschule), and gives workshops in Europe, Asia and America.

Luc Dunberry
Luc Dunberry studied music at the Collège de Sherbrooke, drama at the UQAM (Université du Québec à Montréal) and dance at LADMMI (Les Ateliers de Danse Moderne de Montréal Inc.). Sasha Waltz engaged him as a dancer in 1996 for her company Sasha Waltz & Guests. Luc Dunberry also continuously develops his own choreographies. No thanks I’m fine was premiered 1997 in the Tanzfabrik, anything else, together with Kruz Diaz de Garaio Esnaola, in 1998 at the sophiensæle. Since 1999, Luc Dunberry was a member of the dance ensemble at the Schaubühne am Lehniner Platz. There he developed in 2000, again with Kruz, the dance production The rest of you. His piece Seriously was the opening piece at the Tanzplattform Deutschland in Leipzig 2002. Together with the choreographers Juan Kruz Diaz de Garaio Esnaola, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, and Damien Jalet, he developed D’avant (2002) which has toured extensively throughout the world. In 2003, he produced his first film (Left) between us. In August 2005, his piece Don't we had its premiere.

Damien Jalet
Following a two-year theatre course at the INSAS(Institut National des Arts du Spectacle et Techinques de Diffusion) in Brussels, Damien Jalet trained intensively in different dance techniques (release, ballet, yoga, etc.) in Belgium and New York. He worked with Wim Vandekeybus (The day of heaven and hell) and Ted Stoffer and then joined Les Ballets C. de la B., where he initially worked with Christine Desmedt and subsequently with Larbi Cherkaoui. He started to work with him in Rien de rien (2000) and continued with Foi (2003). In September 2002, he co-directed -- with Sidi Larbi Cherkoui, Luc Dunberry and Juan Kruz Diaz de Garaio Esnaola -- the choreography for D’avant (2002) for the Schaubühne am Lehniner Platz in Berlin. He also worked together with various artists such as An Pierlé, Sasha Waltz, and Stefanie Tiersch, among others. Damien has also studied Italian ethnomusicology (with Giovanna Marini and Christine Leboutte) which continues to have a great influence on him.