Ballad

Ballade

Two dancers using all the spaces of a retirement home.

Audience // residents, staff, caregivers, maintenance personnel, visitors and anyone who happens to be in the home.

Duration // two days

Two days of dancing in every form and using all the different spaces in the home: through workshops, improvisations, games and performances to fully immerse everyone.

First, surprise them one morning after breakfast, as they discover that two female dancers are there: in the corridors, in the dining room, in the common areas. You hear their music, you wonder, then you see them and you understand!

For two days, in order to give everyone time to find their own rhythm, to observe in order to be able to trust, to enjoy it immediately but then to be able to rest, we are multiplying the ways of entering the dance: being a privileged spectator of a dance in your room, in complete privacy; or to participate in a movement workshop designed so that everyone can move, whatever their degree of mobility; adapted for all ranges of mobility, or to let themselves be drawn into the game of dance through imitating the dancer’s in a common space; or to laugh at the joy of watching an improvisation that springs up from their busy dinner table.
In an unexpected way, using tact and humor, a gentle breeze – carrying the elements dance, beauty, and weightlessness – blows through the house.

Watching bodies dance, is already like dancing yourselves! Playing the games is already in itself gaining mobility. The aches, the pains and the fear of losing balance, all this is taken away in our movements.

At the end of the immersion, all the residents, staff, and families are invited to gather around to watch a 30-minute performance. We dance in a duo, knowing we have managed a connection with the audience. We recognize each one of them and remember the good times spent together. After tea time, we leave with the impression of having spent the whole week together, since it was so intense and full of emotion.

TEAM AND PARTNERSHIPS

Project holders
Emilie Buestel, Marie Doiret
Dancers
Performed alternatively by Emilie Buestel, Marie Doiret, Elodie Escarmelle, Julia Leredde, Lauriane Madelaine
Plastician – scenographer
Sidonie Morin
Musical composition
Sébastien Berteau
Costume designer
Cécile Madry
Artist Plastician
Aurélie Buridan


EHPAD Institution (retirement home)
EHPAD Mathilde Laurent, Villeneuve-lès-Maguelone (34)
EHPAD Les Pergolines, Sète (34)
L’Hôpital Bretonneau, Paris 18ième (75)
France Horizon, EHPAD Les Tisserins et EHPAD Panhard, Essonne (91)

Cultural structures
Le CCAS de Villeneuve-lès-Maguelone (34)
Le Théâtre Jérôme Savary, Villeneuve-lès-Maguelone (34)
La Scène Nationale de l’Essonne, Evry (91)
 
Grants
DRAC, Culture Santé et Handicap, Occitanie (DRAC Occitanie, ARS Occitanie)
DRAC, Culture et Santé, Ile de France, (DRAC Ile de France / SDAT, ARS Ile de France)
Ville de Paris, Service culture
La Mairie de Paris, 18ème arrondissment
Région Occitanie

We thank 2R2C, Paris 13 and the Halle Tropisme in Montpellier (34) for hosting us in their artist residency.

FULL SHOW’S FOLDER

Download the full show’s folder by clicking here.