Dehors est blanc (2023) - Tumbleweed
The human being is an assembly of forces in constant imbalance; an attempt to resist in the organization of matter. It is one of the many faces skilfully tinkered by nature, insignificant and daring, whose survival depends essentially on its ability to reposition itself. For this new work, Tumbleweed offer us a choreographic installation in suspension, as a portrait of the contemporary human being who, today more than ever, questions the determinants of its balance and of its territory.
Dehors est blanc is a reference to an atmospheric optical phenomenon called « le blanc dehors » or « whiteout » happening in extreme weather conditions. Everything seems enveloped in a featureless white glow and the observer can no longer discern the horizon from its surrounding and loses its sense of depth and orientation.
After The Gyre (2018) and A Very Eye (2022), Dehors est blanc is Tumbleweed’s third project. It premiered on June 9 and 10, 2023 at MC93 (Bobigny), in the frame of Les Rencontres chorégraphiques internationales de Seine-Saint-Denis. In September 2023, Dehors est blanc was also presented within the Biennale de la danse (Les Subs, Lyon).
In 2025/2026, Tumbleweed will create Threshold.
Website: www.cietumbleweed.com
UPCOMING DATES
07.11.2024 | CC Brugge, MaZ - Magdalenazaal, Brugge (BE)
13.05.2025 | CCHA - Cultuurcentrum Hasselt, Hasselt (BE)
14.05.2025 | CCHA - Cultuurcentrum Hasselt, Hasselt (BE)
PREVIOUS DATES
20.01.2021 | Mars - Mons arts de la scène, Mons (BE) - professional showing
03.05.2022 | Dehors est blanc (work in progress), Centre Wallonie-Bruxelles, Paris (FR)
04.06.2022 | Dehors est blanc (work in progress), C-TAKT / Dommelhof, Pelt (BE)
06.06.2022 | Dehors est blanc (work in progress), CircusDanceFestival, Cologne (DE)
27.04.2023 | De Warande, Turnhout (BE) - Pré-Première
09.06.2023 | Rencontres chorégraphiques internationales de Seine-Saint-Denis, MC93, Paris (FR)
10.06.2023 | Rencontres chorégraphiques internationales de Seine-Saint-Denis, MC93, Paris (FR)
28.09.2023 | Biennale de la danse, Les SUBS, Lyon (FR)
29.09.2023 | Biennale de la danse, Les SUBS, Lyon (FR)
30.10.2023 | Theater op de Markt, Dommelhof, Pelt (BE)
31.10.2023 | Theater op de Markt, Dommelhof, Pelt (BE)
10.11.2023 | Les écuries - Charleroi danse, Charleroi (BE)
11.11.2023 | Les écuries - Charleroi danse, Charleroi (BE)
10.04.2024 | Les Halles de Schaerbeek, Bruxelles (BE)
11.04.2024 | Les Halles de Schaerbeek, Bruxelles (BE)
12.04.2024 | Les Halles de Schaerbeek, Bruxelles (BE)
15.05.2024 | STUK Arts Center, Leuven (BE)
Dehors est blanc - a project by Tumbleweed (creation 2023)
Concept, choreography: Angela Rabaglio, Micaël Florentz Score: Angela Rabaglio, Micaël Florentz, Sergi Parés Performance: Angela Rabaglio, Micaël Florentz, Florencia Demestri / Thomas Vantuycom Light and stage design: Arnaud Gerniers Music: Anne Lepère Costumes: Catherine Somers Internship in dramaturgy: Martha Dewit Outside Eye: Areti Chourdaki (intern), Mélissa Rondeau Technical Direction: Yorrick Detroy Technical Support, Set Construction: Thomas Schellenberger Structure: Noé Robert Rigging: Black Hand Crew Distribution, communication: Quentin Legrand / Rue Branly
Production: Tumbleweed Executive Production: laGeste Coproduction: Mars - Mons Arts de la Scène (BE), STUK (BE), C-TAKT / Dommelhof (BE), Les SUBS - Lyon (FR), Les Brigittines (BE), Charleroi danse - Centre chorégraphique de la Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles (BE), laGeste (BE), Les Halles de Schaerbeek (BE), Rencontres chorégraphiques internationales de Seine-Saint-Denis (FR) Residency partners: workspacebrussels (BE), Les Brigittines (BE), Espace Catastrophe - Centre International de création des Arts du Cirque (BE), Mars - Mons arts de la scène (BE), Théâtre des Doms (FR), STUK kunstencentrum (BE), C-TAKT/ Dommelhof (BE), de Warande (BE), laGeste (BE), Les SUBS Lyon (FR) With the support of Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles - Service général de la création artistique, Wallonie-Bruxelles International, les Autorités flamandes (de Vlaamse Overheid), La Chaufferie-Acte1, Grand Studio et le Réseau Grand Luxe 21/22 Thank you: Hildegard De Vuyst, Louise Hanquet, Daniel Perez Hajdu, Fred Op de Beeck, Benjamin van Thiel, Dr. Vertical asbl, Yvon van Lancker, Marché de la Glacière, Lieve Dierckx, Mona Felah et Jeanne Colin
Dehors est blanc was created with the support of Flanders Tax Shelter bvba and Tax-Shelter by the Belgian Government.
photo © Arnaud Gerniers, Quentin Legrand
With Dehors est blanc, Tumbleweed fascinates us from start to finish. (...) To discover Tumbleweed's new creation, you must first be patient. The doors to the room only open at the last minute and we sit in almost total darkness, only disturbed by a large white square on the floor. (...) As the light increases little by little, we can now distinguish three bodies evolving slowly and finding themselves in unthinkable positions with absolute control. Sitting, lying down, slowly tumbling over themselves, hanging upside down like Icarus suspending their fall... We then understand that the slowness of the movements is not a desire to slow down the course of things but the direct consequence of the incredible system of weights, pulleys and cables thanks to which they float in the air while moving with infinite grace.
Impossible to say more without taking away from future spectators the joy and amazement of the discovery of a structure which becomes, in the last minutes, a superb element of scenography. In light of the incredible physical performance of a trio of fascinating dancers, capable of being on familiar terms with angels.
Jean-Marie Wynants, Le Soir Mad, 08.11.23
Aerial virtuosity and soft poetry for a suspended trio, Dehors est blanc is an invitation to let go and breathe. (...) The tiny as an evidence, gentleness as an immense force and sublimated reality. This is what Tumbleweed distills with this show which takes the time to settle in, to say itself, to make us see a thousand things and more, in a tour de force that doesn't seem like one, so strong is the fluidity of the moment. A marginal performance, in masterful poetry.
Isabelle Plumhans, Focus Le Vif, 02/11/23
(After The Gyre and A Very Eye) we find in this new opus this same desire to put bodies to the test, to make dance a performance. Performance because the three dancers are in the air, suspended from a system of pulleys and counterweights, the balance is precarious, fragile, any slightly sudden movement can cause a fall. Strange situation of double contradictory injunction where we would feel both totally free and totally held, our bodies tangled in threads. Then there is the extreme slowness of these bodies in tension which allows modulations, sometimes tiny or indistinct but which are there as we perceive a drop of sweat beading from the forehead of one of the dancers. Is it dance you may ask, with this eternal temptation that we have to put things in boxes. It’s not circus in any case. Nothing acrobatic. Rather a trance which is just terribly saving in our perpetually moving world. Like a pause, a breath. Poetry after all. Like a verse that we read again and again because we are always amazed at its unfading beauty. (…) Thank you for this journey.
Thomas Adam-Garnung, Ballroom Online, June 2023
Images unfold strikingly, reversing our perceptions, thwarting our expectations, staggering like the spectacle of new stellar bodies. (...) Dehors est blanc is light years away from astronauts and technological weightlessness, and it is very fortunate that this proposal does not turn into a space carousel, no, it is rather a question of a test of a danced body if it were to disregard what usually governs it. (...) Dehors est blanc will strip itself of its illusion as of a weight too heavy to bear. The cables that hold and carry the dancers through various attachments will remain invisible, but the counterweights will appear on the fourth back wall. A reverse side of the decor and its magic, the double bottom of the box: lightness can only be displayed at the cost of a hidden weight. Each detachment will be materialized by the fall of the ballast and the dull sound of its crushing on the ground. (...) Like a violent and traumatic return to reality. It is the strength of Dehors est blanc to make this understood after having seen this.
Nicolas Thevenot, Un fauteuil pour l'orchestre, 19.06.23
In the center of the scene, a white rectangle diffuses a weak light. Above, hovers a shapeless mass, a knot difficult to disentangle with the eyes. Luminosity is at the crossroads of light and dark, day and night, outside and inside. The confusion of the spectators leads to the sensory rout. (…) The choreographic writing alternates moments of pure slowness and dynamic passages, escorted by electronic music, with futuristic notes. (…) The collective experience is strong, disconcerting. The circle is complete, but the performance continues. Performers get rid of their wires. They are now on the ground. The music has died down. Silence closes this fascinating ballet. Only the striking of the masses on the ground resounds. Detonations. Executions. The symbolic violence is immense.
Nina Lacour, L’Humanité.fr, 13.06.23
In Bobigny, a suspended dance.
Interview with Arnaud Laporte, Affaires à suivre, France Culture, 08.06.23
The "white out" is an atmospheric optical phenomenon often observed in polar regions or in the mountains. When it occurs, the environment becomes an entirely white space, with no contrast or visual cues, causing a loss of sense of depth and direction. Inspired by this optical phenomenon and this disappearance of referential systems, Angela Rabaglio and Micaël Florentz imagine a choreography for three bodies in suspension, connected to cables and counterweights, in search of new relationships to space and gravity. In this interview, Angela Rabaglio and Micaël Florentz discuss the creative process of Dehors et blanc.
Interview with Marika Rizzi, maculture.fr, 05.06.23