LOOK WHAT THE WORLD DID TO US
LOOK THE WORLD DID TO US is a worldwide pedagogical approach and realization of creations process that the choreographer and artistic director of UNDERDOG Project: Alexis Jestin, leads with a large audience of professional dancers and amateurs between Europe, Asia and Latina America since 2018, by investigations works that explores the movements linked to the prospection of territories through isolation and social exclusion.
"Possessing all paths, he possesses none". Sophocles
I want to question the wanderer that unfolds in the street, where the mass is concentrated and the sum of individuals is dispersed, considering the urban space as a set of cells. Cellular spaces that embrace us and from which we can and must leave. The idea of the enclosed will be the starting point of my artistic pilgrimage along the writings of the situationist, poet and writer Guy-Ernest Debord on the "Theory of Drift". Drifting is defined as a technique of moving hastily through various environments. The concept of drifting is inextricably linked to the recognition of effects of a psychogeographic nature, and to the affirmation of constructive playful behavior. Loneliness, withdrawal, "schizophrenic" states, which can arise from a life of solitary wandering in an urban environment, do not necessarily imply isolation or social exclusion. These symptoms are, for me, generators of contemplation, poetic introspection, desire and creative inspiration.
An authentic and exhaustive research will be carried out in the field. Experimentation will define the main research engine of the creative process. I will voluntarily put ourselves to the test, in situations, in failure, in conquest, to stimulate new spaces of perception, exploration, examination and observation. I will appropriate these phenomena to allow us to carry out an artistic exile.
For this human and artistic adventure, Alexis Jestin is Laureate of La Villa Saigon Residency 2020 in Vietnam and resident of the Residency R.E.D Arena Eina TANZ in Norway. Among the support and confidence of institutions such as : The National Center of Contemporary Dance of Angers, the National Choreographic Center National Choreographic Center of Rilleux and the National Choreographic Center of Grenoble. Until today, the choreographer collaborated with the Laboratory of Physical Theater of Montreuil Paris, the Department of Dance of Warsaw in Poland, the Academy of Dance of Hanoi in Vietnam, the professional training program COLINE in Istres France, the University of Fine Arts of Barranquilla Colombia, the Superior Conservatory of Saigon in Vietnam, the University San Francisco in Quito, the Center of Contemporary Art of Quito, the National company of Ecuador…
Join as partner and let’s create our own Experience !
Today this ArtVenture has found an audience in the studio of more than 400 dancers around the world. It continues to live with the immense curiosity to share and discover the talented scenes of art and contemporary dance around the world by creating originals chapters on every experience of encounter connected to the socio-cultural richness and diversity that composes us.
A typical day in the studio
Each work session will begin with a warm-up, an awakening of the body, as well as the senses of perception addressed through a somatic crossing. Lying on the floor, we will become aware of the volumes that make up our body in relation to the volumes that make up the space around us. We will interact with these notions of space by revealing their interspaces in the infinite and infinitesimal, inside and outside of us, to reveal ourselves in a four-dimensional space: three spatial dimensions + one temporal dimension. Throughout the execution, the theme of a dense space full of matter will follow us to introduce a concept of open and closed doors that will allow us to access a moving environment that emerges from the spine and that will guide us towards standup station. The idea of a constant organic and fluid movement will be ours throughout the session. Through these processes we will develop a deep exploration of self- awareness through the body. Gradually we will create a common connection of moods and energies by exploring various qualities related to self, group, space and universality.
This will contaminate the way we explore movement through different angles of perception. This development will reach a high intensity of speed linked to instinctive movement in a playful approach to risk and physical engagement. Total control, mastery and confidence will emerge, through agility, flexibility and rapid immediate adaptation. We will use it to surrender and accept fatigue to return to an inner awareness that finds the ground. From this journey and moment of reconnecting with our feelings and emotions, a personal fictional story will emerge that we will take the time to share.
The laboratory will then be develop in three main phases or axes. First, we will begin along process of improvisation. This process will help us go through various body states and theatrical games. It will create a link and a base of projections for the compositional mechanisms that will follow. During this period of exploration, we will go through some checkpoints that will lead us beyond the psychological approach to movement and into physical resources.
Our systems of functioning, our personalities will be challenged or solicited and the directions given will force us to create different and new registers of expression.
The work of composition will then start from a research linked to everyday life and to a thematic gestures exploration.
We will decide together the common qualities that we want to bring to the forefront. We will internalize and project our different energies, movements, colors and territories, all linked to personal sensations and emotions to generate movement, dances, processions, languages. Then using spontaneity and immediacy to create a direct framework to release a concrete material.
We will add several layers to develop a complexity by reinvesting the artists choices throughout the process. Creating, revealing and defining a form from all our explorations, spontaneous experiences and generated materials.
Finally, we will use my choreographic tools instantly to put everything in place in a common space and a coherent timing.
"I adhere to the deep conviction that my work around LOOK WHAT THE WORLD DID TO US must play a universal role and have the ambition to be rediscovered through new angles of approaches and perceptions. I always aspire to write a new chapter with the strong and unique identity of the environment and the group of individuals I am discovering from within for the first time, in relation to the contemporary dance scene committed to a practice of excellence. It is an honor and a great opportunity for me and the project to humbly open new doors by exploring with talented artists and dancers across borders, taking advantage of their unique socio-cultural context."
AGENDA: Creations - Workshops Labs
2023
*Creation for 40 amateurs dancers MEMORIA Museo de las Migraciones Montevideo Uruguay 11 September
*Creation for 5 dancers MIRA Espiral Danza Matanzas Cuba Teatro Sauto 29+30 April
2022
*Creation of the solo LOOK WHAT THE WORLD DID TO HER for the choreographer Nhung Vo
Gallery Quynh Saigon Vietnam 24 September
*Creation for 15 dancers NHAY15 Conservatory Truong Tp Mua Saigon Vietnam 16 September
Workshop LOOK. Dancenter Saigon Vietnam 10 September
*Creation for 8 dancers MERODEADORES Espacio Vazio Ecuador Quito 29-30 April
2021
*Creation for 16 dancers Foreign Quest Compañia National Danza Ecuador Quito 16-17-18 December
Workshop LOOK. Centro de Arte Contemporáneo Quito Ecuador 11 December
Workshop LOOK. Casa Cultural La Nube Quito Ecuador 27/28 November
Workshop LOOK. Universidad San Francisco Quito Ecuador 15-19 November
Workshop LOOK. La Fabrique de la Danse Nantes France 12-17 July
Workshop LOOK. Studio Akimode Valencia Spain 10-15 June
Workshop LOOK. Professional Training program Coline Istres France 22-26 March
2020
Workshop LOOK. Zoom version. Universidad de Barranquilla Colombia 18 junio-18 September
*Creation For 15 dancers NHAY15 Conservatory Truong Tp Mua Saigon Vietnam 6-12 January
Reported at September 2022 / Covid-19)
*Creation of the solo LOOK WHAT THE WORLD DID TO HER. for the choreographer Nhung Vo Saigon Vietnam 13-18 January Reported at September 2022 / Covid-19)
2019
Workshop LOOK. National Dance Academy Hanoi Vietnam 14 December
Workshop LOOK. R.E.D Arena Residency Oslo Norway 30 September-12 October
Workshop LOOK. Laboratory Physical Theater Paris France 6-11 May
Workshop LOOK. Centre National de Danse Contemporaine D’Angers France 22-27 April
Workshop LOOK. École Écrit des corps Lançonnais France 30-31 March
Workshop LOOK. Warsaw Dance Department Poland 18-23 March
Workshop LOOK. Dance Center Saigon Vietnam 18-19 January
Workshop LOOK. Conservatory Truong TP Mua Saigon Vietnam 14/15/16 January
Workshop LOOK. Dance Center Saigon Vietnam 12-13 January
Workshop LOOK. Low Rider Studio Hanoi Vietnam 22-23 December
2018
Workshop LOOK. National Dance Academy Hanoi Vietnam 21 December
Workshop LOOK. Kinergie studio Hanoi Vietnam 15-16 December