Cécile Loyer

C.LOY

Knock Hard
(As If to Wake the Dead)

Off-site residency

October 16 to 20, 2023

CN D in Lyon

As part of the Accueil-studio project

“They can watch the news on TV, but they remain deaf to the sound of the world”
— Stéphanie Chaillou, Le Bruit du monde (The Sound of the World)

Note of intent

Ten years ago, with my production Moments d’absence (Moments of Absence), I channelled the work of film-maker Jean Eustache to address the notions of reality and fiction on stage. For the first time, I drew on the devices used in his films, particularly Une sale histoire (A Dirty Story), to highlight the in-between dimension that ran through my first productions, the notions of truth and falsehood, the notion of borders, specifically those between the performers and the audience.

In Knock Hard (As If to Wake the Dead), I am once again delving into the work of Jean Eustache with his last creation, Les Photos d’Alix (Alix’s Photos), a short film shot in 1980. In that film, photographer Alix Cléo Roubaud shows a teenage boy a collection of photographs taken during various periods of her life. They are personal, intimate even, and each corresponds to a memory, a feeling, an experience. The device is clear and the rules simple; the photographs appear one by one in close-up, while the photographer explains each picture in response to the young man’s questions.

And then, all of a sudden, the sound and image split and Alix Cléo Roubaud’s description and account of each photograph no longer corresponds to what the audience sees. The characters, places and objects she alludes to – our gaze following her hands – have disappeared. We see instead other objects, other places and characters that Alix’s every word transforms, reinvents and redefines (…).

With Knock Hard (As If to Wake the Dead), which will feature eight performers, I want to inspire viewers to lose their bearings and guide them towards a territory of extreme alertness where the eyes must search to understand what the ears perceive, and where words must be heard intensely, corporeally, to give form to the image.

Our world is infinitely more poetic than we think…

Cécile Loyer

A graduate of the Angers National Centre for Contemporary Dance, Cécile Loyer has participated as a performer in creations by Fattoumi-Lamoureux (1994-1995), Catherine Diverrès (1996-2000), Karine Pontiès (2001-2005), Josef Nadj (2004-2010) and Caterina Sagna (2012-2013), and as choreographer for Paul Desvaux’s production of Lulu by Frank Wedekind (2017).

Winner of the 2000 Médicis Hors Les Murs award, she spent six months working in Tokyo under the guidance of Butoh Master Mitsuyo Uesugi, subsequently serving as her assistant for Europe from 2000 to 2005.

Her first choreographic work dates from 2000, during her time in Japan, when she created Blanc (White) (1st Prize in the Espace Pier Paolo Pasolini Young Creators’ Competition, Valenciennes). The same year, she founded the C.LOY dance troupe, within which she has since created or co-created an additional 18 productions: Ombres (Shadows), 2001; Puppi, in collaboration with Mitsuyo Uesugi, 2003; Raymond (au paradis) (Raymond (In Heaven)), 2004; Rois (Kings), 2005; Fiasco +, 2005; Que Tal, ou comment vouloir peut être un problème (Que Tal, or How Wanting Can Be a Problem), in collaboration with Thomas Lebrun, 2007; Blanc (ou la mariée est un homme) (White (or the Bride Is a Man)), 2007; Soldats (Soldiers), 2009; Morpho(s), 2010; Moments d’absence (Moments of Absence), 2011; Cascade, 2012; L’Hippocampe mais l’hipoccampe (Hippocampus But Hipoccampus), 2014; Une pièce manquante (A Missing Piece), 2014; Cirque (Circus), 2016; T.A.C., 2016; 4 X 100 Mètres (4 X 100 Metres), 2019; and Kartographie(s), 2020.

As part of a decentralised cooperation initiative with the State of Tamil Nadu, India, and the French region of Centre, she created Histoires Vraies (True Stories) in 2014 and Monde à l’envers (Upside Down World) in 2018. Also in 2018, she performed in Romain Bertet’s final creation, Écouter Voir (Listen See). In 2021, she performed in Mille et une danses (A Thousand and One Dances) by Thomas Lebrun, first presented at the Montpelier Danse Festival.

Since 2011, she has headed La Pratique, Artistic Factory Studio in Vatan (Indre, central France). She has been associate artist at Équinoxe, Scène Nationale de Châteauroux since September 2019.

More info on Cécile Loyer website.

Studio’s opening : Friday October 20, 2023 (tcb)
Centre national de la danse in Lyon
40ter rue Vaubecour — 69002 Lyon
Free on reservation: adriana.falcone@ccnr.fr

+ Cécile Loyer will be leading the Sentir La Fibre workshop on Monday, October 16, 2023 (tbc)

Première : November 23 2023 at Équinoxe — Scène Nationale de Châteauroux

Casting

Choreography: Cécile Loyer
Choreography assistant: Jean-Baptiste Bernadet and Myriam Bloedé
Performers: Caroline Boussard, Sonia Delbost-Henry, Éric Domeneghetty, Steven Hervouet, Mai Ishiwata, Vesna Mbelani, Cécile Loyer, Karim Sylla
Light design: Coralie Pacreau
Sound creation: Emmanuel Baux
Costumes: Fabrice-Ilia Leroy

Production: C.LOY

Co-production (in progress): Équinoxe – Scène Nationale de Châteauroux, Viadanse – Centre chorégraphique national de Bourgogne Franche-Comté à Belfort, Centre chorégraphique national d’Orléans, Centre chorégraphique national de Rillieux-la-Pape, direction Yuval PICK (Accueil-Studio)

Support: Le Ballet du Nord – Centre Chorégraphique National Roubaix Hauts-de-France

Cécile Loyer has been an associate artist at Équinoxe – Scène nationale de Châteauroux since September 2019. The C.LOY company has an agreement with the Regional Department of Cultural Affairs and the Centre-Val de Loire Region.