performed by jean-baptiste andre
production : l'association fragile
co-production : SACD and the Festival d'Avignon presented in the "Vif du sujet" programme with the support of the National Centre of Contemporary Dance - Angers
"In July 2002, at the invitation of rachid ouramdane, we turned our attention to the iconic figure of the biker, solitary without his motorbike, left to his own devices.
What emerged from this was skull*cult, for and with the Jardin de la Vierge in Avignon.
In January 2005, this time at jean-baptist andre's invitation, we decided to revisitskull*cult for the same space, three years later.
It became "comme crane comme culte".
If the memory of an experience, that one might mistakenly confuse with an image, lingers with us like the inscription of a past time, then what about its reactivation and interpretation by another being, in another present, in another story?
How do we perceive a body that only reveals itself in a hidden way, doubly filtered by another person's story, and by an iconic figure?
comme crane, comme culte. goes back over traces in order to leave us new ones, such as the thoughts (prayers, visions) accumulated in an empty space, crystallised by its potentialities. Tinged with memories and mild nostalgia, comme crane, comme culte. offers a window for observation, an accurate and precise choreography in the void of the surroundingspace. More than ever, what is really at stake for me in presence, detail and the physical ability to define oneself is the thought process in-the-making.
christian rizzo, february 2005
"Our pleasure is doubled in the "vif du sujet" part of the Festival with the duo of jean-baptiste andre and christian rizzo: andre is onstage and rizzo in the house.
Wearing his motorcycle leathers jb andre turns into a true Spiderman, squarely standing on his hands and feet, then turning upside down, a vine which bends but never breaks.
It isn't all about stretch, there is in this reduction of the body, the confounding of front and back, the beginnings of a new kind of ceremony. Like an homage to dance, to all dance, a link between a too-heavy academic past in dance and a chiaroscuro contemporary dance future.
rizzo has a sweet response to this era's darkness. Note to all : In the word choreographer, there is the word corps, meaning body in French.
Philippe Noisette, les inrockuptibles, August 2005