Carolyn Carlson Company: Islands

The Seventh Woman
Solo (2020)
Choreography Carolyn Carlson
Performance Sara Orselli
Live music Guillaume Perret

The Seventh Man
Solo (2019)
Choreography Carolyn Carlson
Performance Riccardo Meneghini
Live music Guillaume Perret
Lighting Guillaume Bonneau

Wind Women
Duet (2018), variation of a 2011 solo
Choreography Carolyn Carlson
Performance Céline Maufroid and Sara Simeoni
Original music Nicolas de Zorzi

Mandala
Solo (2010)
Choreography Carolyn Carlson
Performance Sara Orselli
Music Michael Gordon: Weather, Part 1

The solo is Carolyn Carlson’s favourite form since the 1970s and her famous Density 21.5 for which the Californian artist was appointed star-choreographer. Since then, she has never stopped going from group creation and ballet to soli. To her, it constitutes the essential form of the choreographic work. It is a moment of direct link to dance, a possibility to go back to oneself and a search for the ultimate tone of the unique and pure gesture. Carolyn Carlson has created over a hundred pieces, a large number of which are landmarks in the history of dance, including The Year of the Horse, Blue Lady, Steppe, Maa, Signes, Writings on Water and Inanna. In 2006, her work was rewarded with the first ever Golden Lion given to a choreographer by the Venice Biennale.

Islands consist of three soli and a duet: The Seventh Woman, The Seventh Man, Wind Women, and Mandala – works with which Carlson returns to the quest for her own essence, her own intimacy, whilst revealing all the beauty and strength radiated by a dancer’s standalone body.
As an introduction to this programme of visual poetry, Guillaume Perret, an unclassifiable French jazz composer and saxophone player, will give a small live set. In adding electric effects to his instrument, he elevates his notes to a new and surprising level, producing rich and original soundscapes.