Flowers (we are)
© Julie De Meester

PROJECT

Flowers (we are)

Flowers (we are) is Claire Croizé’s first collaboration with contemporary composer Matteo Fargion. Together they are creating a dance piece with live music by and inspired by Bach. Selections from the preludes of Das Wohltemperierte Klavier, transcriptions of his chorales for four hands, and new compositions form the musical texture, executed on one piano by Matteo and his daughter Francesca. Three dancers translate this vision into movement.

Claire and Matteo are looking for a playful and creative approach to Bach, both in the selection and transformation of Bach’s work, as in the new pieces. Claire is again inspired by the poet Rainer Maria Rilke, whose writings will be converted into lyrics that lean closer to pop music and, as such, form a contrast with the Classical framework, in an irreverent hommage to the grand master of Baroque.

“Hommage” is the keyword here, not just in the sense of a tribute, but also as a gift, of the dancers to each other, of the musicians to the dancers and vice versa, and of the performers to the audience. Flowers (we are) is both intimate and generous, a loving ode to the performers and a search for the different possible relationships between diverse personalities and generations, between dancers and musicians, between dance and music.

The residency in wpZimmer is a technical residency near the end of our creation process, so we will be working on and finetuning the dance material and the dramaturgy as well as the definitive costumes, scenography and lighting plan. Matteo and Francesca will be present for three days, which will give us the opportunity to rehearse with live music and work on the interaction between musicians and dancers.

Claire Croizé

Claire Croizé graduated from P.A.R.T.S. in 2000. Her graduation project, Donne-moi quelque chose qui ne meure pas, was hailed by the French press as one of the discoveries of PARTS@PARIS. She quickly followed with the solo Blowing Up (2002), produced by PACT Zollverein (Essen), and the trio Runway #1 (2003), created for the Off Limits festival.

Claire started working under the support of wpZimmer (Antwerp) in 2005, and premiered at STUK (Leuven) with Affected, an internationally acclaimed performance consisting of three solos for three women on Gustav Mahler’s Kindertotenlieder. This was also the first collaboration with Jan Maertens, her regular light designer. In 2009, she pursued her work on Mahler’s music with The Farewell, which won the prestigious Prix Jardin d’Europe.

After her period at wpZimmer, Claire continued her choreographic work under the wing of Action Scénique and ECCE.

Credits

Concept: Claire CroizéMusical composition: Matteo FargionDance: Emmi Väisänen, Claire Godsmark, Gorka GurrutxagaMusic interpreted by: Matteo Fargion and Francesca FargionMusic: BachDramaturgy: Etienne GuilloteauCostume design: Anne-Catherine KunzProduction: ECCE vzwCo-produced by: De Vlaamse Overheid, Concertgebouw Brugge, wpZimmer, Kunstencentrum BUDA, Kaaitheater.