La compagnie de Susan Buirge (Susan Buirge Dance Company) has been in residency at the Royaumont Foundation since 2000.
The last programme, realized with the English composer Jonathan Harvey, was premiered in March 2006 within the framework of the Biennale Musiques en scène (Lyon), at the Toboggan Theatre. Composed of two pieces, A l'abri des vents (Sheltered from the winds) and At a Cloud Gathering, it gathers 6 dancers and percussionist Jean-Paul Bernard on stage.
For more information about la compagnie de Susan Buirge, please click here:
- calendar 2006
- calendar 2007 
A l'abri des vents & At a Cloud Gathering (2006)In 2002, the English composer Jonathan Harvey was invited to Royaumont’s Musical Season. His vocal works, performed in the ancient refectory, left Susan Buirge profoundly moved. Harvey subsequently saw Buirge’s work L’oeil de la forêt (The Eye of the Forest) at Royaumont. He greatly admired the purity of the lines, the structuring of the space, the overall serenity. Together, they decided to conceive a project.
The two artists have in common a particular sensitivity for ancestral cultures: Japan or the nomadic peoples of North America for the choreographer; Buddhism for the composer. Their works reflect their having been steeped with influences from ”elsewhere“. They share a profound feeling for the inexplicable, for the impalpable which surrounds humans at certain moments.
Choreography: Susan Buirge
Music: Jonathan Harvey
Musical Assistant: Gilbert Nouno
Lighting designer: Félix Lefebvre
Set and costume designer: Laurence Bruley
Technical direction: Stéfan Mckenzie Main
Stage manager: Eric Capuano or Gilles Madras
Sound manager: Vanessa Court or Marc Piéra
A l’abri des vents (Sheltered from the Winds)
Dancers: Michel Barthôme, Sylvie Berthomé, Thierry Lafont, Young-ho Nam
Music re-composed by Jonathan Harvey from Palestrina’s Stabat Mater, recorded by Les Jeunes Solistes/dir. Rachid Safir, with a state commission from the Ministry of Culture and Communication to Jonathan Harvey.
23 minutes
At a Cloud Gathering
Dancers: Michel Barthôme, Sylvie Berthomé, Thierry Lafont, Young-ho Nam, Nicole Piazzon, Régis Rasmus
Percussionist: Jean-Paul Bernard
Original music by Jonathan Harvey for percussion and electronics, live (production CIRM)
35 minutes
A production of the Fondation Royaumont – Centre de recherche et de composition chorégraphiques and Voix Nouvelles, in coproduction with l’Apostrophe-scène nationale of Cergy-Pontoise, the Maison de la Culture d’Amiens, the GRAME-Centre national de création musicale in Lyon, the CIRM- Centre national de création musicale in Nice. With support from the French Embassy in India, the British Council in New-Delhi, the Toboggan-scène conventionnée de Décines, the Theater of Grasse and Système Castafiore.
To have more information about the venues in 2006, please click here
Soli (2005)The Soli programme retraces in four moments the major developments of Susan Buirge’s work: her arrival in France through the founding piece In Going from West to East (1976) ; Moon Shadow Terrace (1995), emblematic of her period of residency in Asia ; and Dance North (2000), inspired by her recent encounter with the nomads of northern Quebec.
The programme, of approximately one hour, includes a solo with recorded music and three solos with live music.
1. In Going from West to East, first performed at the Maison de la Culture, in La Rochelle, by Susan Buirge
Choreographer: Susan Buirge
Dancer: Nicole Piazzon
Music in Similar Motion by Philip Glass
Duration 17 minutes
2. Dance North, first performed in 2000 by Bernardo Montet at the Centre chorégraphique national de Montpellier, as part of « potlatch, dérive » at the Montpellier Dance Festival
Choreographer: Susan Buirge
Dancer: Taoufiq Izeddiou
Musician: Carol Robinson (gong)
Duration 14 minutes
3. Moon Shadow Terrace, first performed in 1995 at the Festival de Saint-Florent-le-Vieil by the Taïwanese dancer Hsieu-Wei Lin
Choreographer: Susan Buirge
Dancer: Young-ho Nam
Composer and musician: Carol Robinson (birbyne; Lithuanian clarinet)
Duration 20 minutes
Costume designer: Laurence Bruley
Lighting Designer: Stéfan Mckenzie Main
4. The Hunter of the lake, first performed in 2004 at the Théâtre de la Ville, in Paris for the event « Prisme Nikolais »
Choreographer: Susan Buirge
Dancer: Larrio Ekson
Composer and musician: Carol Robinson (amplified sounds, live and pre-recorded)
Duration : 13 minutes
NB: The Hunter of the Lake was part of the Soli programme until the end of April 2005
Soli is a production of the Fondation Royaumont, with support from the Conseil general du Val d’Oise and cities of Enghien-les-Bains and Beauchamp.
En dessous (Underneath)Ordered by the Institut Mémoires de l’édition contemporaine (IMEC) for the inauguration of its new library, at the Ardennes Abbey, En dessous (Underneath) is a choreography for seven dancers elaborated from “invisible” gesture that participate to the archiving processes.
The choreographer proposes to see what she felt underneath (En dessous), away from the public who comes to visit this exceptional place for research.
Conception and choreography - Susan Buirge
Dancers - Michel Barthôme, Sylvie Berthomé, Emanuela Ciavarella, Olivier Gabrys, Thierry Lafont, Régis Rasmus
Performances on Saturday, 15 January 2005, at the Ardennes Abbey, St Germain la Blanche Herbe (near Caen).
Ao no kaze/Vent vert (2003) – project with the Takatsu ensembleThe Takatsu kagura ensemble invited the choreographer Susan Buirge to make a new work based on their Iwami kagura, secular tradition, to find fundamental elements from the time when people were dancing in the nature, without masks nor costumes, to celebrate the seasons.
From these sources, she choreographed a contemporary kagura, Ao no kaze, a dance which respects the inherent principles of kagura from Iwami, but away from any narrative context.
After a tour in Japan in February 2005, the show was presented in exclusivity in Innsbruck and Paris with a traditional kagura, Jinrin, which permits to appreciate theatrical and musical features about this tradition as it is perpetuated nowadays.
Ao no kaze/Vent vert, contemporary kagura from Susan Buirge
Jinrin, traditional kagura from Iwami of the Takatsu ensemble
with the dancers Tadashi Ishikawa, Kazuo Miyazaki, Shinji Joichi, Kazuya Okazaki, Takamasa Saito, Ai Suenaga and the musicians Sumio Fujihara, Kanichiro Saito, Masara Imakufu, Ritsuko Joichi, Yukie Yamazaki, Saori Nakata, Yumiko Ono, Eri Domoto.
Tour in Japan in 2005
26 & 27 February - Forum of The Japan Foundation, Tokyo
5 & 6 March - Civic Hall, Shimane
Tour in Europe in 2005
16 March - Congress Hall, Innsbruck (Austria)/Osterfestival Tirol
18 & 19 March - Maison de la Culture du Japon, Paris
Ao no kaze is a production of NPO Culture Links, with support of the Cultural Agency of Shimane.
The tour in Japan was supported by the European programme "EU-Japan Exchanges Year"
The tour 2005 in Europe was a production of the Fondation Royaumont and was supported by the Fondation du Japon, the Osterfestival-Hal in Tirol and All Nippon Airways.
| 
