In 2024, breakdance will spring to the forefront of the international sporting scene. In Heracles on his head, choreographer and stage director Anne Nguyen proposes a meta-referential look at some of the issues raised by the event. She explores the values of sports and art, using the opportunity to reflect more broadly on our society.
In Heracles on his head, three breakdance champions, two men and one woman, are preparing for the future sports competition under the coaching of a trainer, who pushes them beyond their limits. Adhering to his (sometimes over-the-top) instructions, the three dancers train and lend themselves to themed battles. Strong-mindedness, competition strategy, development of physical capacity: the trainer prepares his athletes both meticulously and painstakingly.
The three breakdancers mutually gauge their abilities by battling with dance steps, carrying each other aloft and showing off technical feats. However, their assertive characters are challenged by the rigidity of the future competition’s rules, which leads to conflicts among themselves and with the trainer: can one mix the different hip-hop dance styles? Should one optimize physical performance to the detriment of artistic experience? The dance confrontations that emerge from these conflicts illustrate the tensions between the creative freedom peculiar to hip-hop dance and the academism surrounding its elevation to an institutionalized status. Through a mixture of dance and text, Anne Nguyen immerses us in the creative energy and competitive spirit of the world of battles and breakdance. She questions the motto of modern athletic sports – faster, higher, stronger – by exploring the experience of the three breakdancers, who, unbeknownst to their trainer, are secretly working on a breakdance piece that they hope to perform at the future championship. They use choreography to playfully challenge the role of competition and masculine values in our society, by experimenting with the posturing and gesturing traditionally associated with the concepts of strength, heroism and virility and by driving them to their contradictions. Through their choreographed experiments, which are constantly interrupted by an intransigeant trainer, the dancers remind us of the limitations shaping our own representations of ourselves. While we watch them submit to the intense training, the dancers celebrate strenght, ingenuity and human collaboration and pay tribute to our ability to surpass ourselves.
More infos on the website company.
Demo : January 6th 2022 – Reservation : adriana.falcone@ccnr.fr
Text & choreography : Anne Nguyen
Choreographic assistant : Yann Richard
Actor-dancer : Jean-Baptiste Saunier
Dancers (break) : Fabrice Mahicka, Hugo de Vathaire