© Mehdi Benkler
© Mehdi Benkler

Lucinda Childs & Ruth Childs (US/CH)

Particular Reel, Katema, Calico Mingling, Reclining Rondo

  • 70’
  • F Hearing-impaired spectators welcome
  • G Hearing loops
  • C Young audience welcome (8+)
  • A Little or no text
  • D 2018-03-25 18:00

Chorégraphie: Lucinda Childs . Danse: Ruth Childs, Stéphanie Bayle, Anne Delahaye, Anja Schmidt, Pauline Wassermann. Assistant: Ty Boomershine. Création lumières: Joana Oliveira. Costumes: Séverine Besson. Production: Compagnie SCARLETT’S/Production déléguée Tutu Production. Coproduction: La Bâtie Festival de Genève, Arsenic, Lausanne. Soutiens à la création: Ville de Genève, Pro Helvetia – Fondation suisse pour la culture, Fondation suisse des artistes interprètes, Fonds Mécénat SIG, Fondation Nestlé pour l’Art, Stanley Thomas Johnson Foundation, Ernst Göhner Stiftung. Soutiens aux tournées: Pro Helvetia, Canton de Genève, Corodis, Loterie Romande, Pour-cent culturel Migros.

Site web de la compagnie

Ruth Childs presents a second series of re-creations of her aunt Lucinda Childs’ pieces. Transmitted orally by the postmodern dance legend to her successor, these four pieces present a snapshot of the 70s and reactivate the radical nature of the postmodern gesture. Here, the repetition of the same motifs, following different geometric formulations, produces an obsessive combination of elementary and unaffected gestures and rhythms. In a world where new technologies and imagery have modified our visual frame of reference, the reactivation of these pieces by Ruth Childs allows for a new reading of these now classic pieces, whose relevance extends beyond that of a simple quotation.

 

The four pieces are shown in the following order:
Calico Mingling (1973)
Katema (1978)
Reclining Rondo (1975)
Particular Reel (1973)
 
Born in London, the Anglo-American dancer and performer Ruth Childs (1984) grew up in the United States, where she studied classical and contemporary dance as well as the violin. She settled in Switzerland in 2003 to finish her dance training at the Ballet Junior of Geneva. She has worked with several internationally acclaimed choreographers and directors such as Foofwa d’Imobilité, La Ribot, Gilles Jobin, Massimo Furlan, the 2b company and Yasmine Hugonnet. Since 2015, she has been working on a large-scale project, re-creating the first pieces made by her aunt, the American choreographer Lucinda Childs. In 2018, she will direct her first stage piece, in collaboration with Stéphane Vecchione. Titled The Goldfish and the Inner Tube, it will be presented at Arsenic in May.

Born in 1940, Lucinda Childs began her career as a choreographer in 1963 at the Judson School in New York. Having trained with Merce Cunningham among others, she became one of the leading figures of postmodern American dance in the 1970s. She founded her own company in 1973 and rapidly began working as a choreographer and performer for important figures of the contemporary artistic scene such as Bob Wilson, Philip Glass, John Adams, Frank Gehry and Sol LeWitt. Since 1992, she has collaborated with prestigious opera houses by choreographing works from their repertoire or contemporary creations. She has received numerous awards and distinctions, such as the Golden Lion of the Venice Biennale (2017) and the Samuel H. Scripps American Dance Festival Award (2017), for her body of work.