“In the early 2000s, I was a viola student in the classical music program of the University of Campinas, in Brazil. I was then part of a string quartet whose name I no longer recall, along with other students. I hardly remember our rehearsals and concerts or the repertoire we played, with the exception of one piece: the String Quartet no. 8 in C minor op.110 by the Russian composer Dimitri Shostakovich.
I remember this piece as an emotional and physical challenge. I remember my body crossed by intensities and nuances hitherto unknown. I remember the difficulty to stay seated playing such a passionate score, the intense looks we exchanged between musicians, the silence that reigned at the end of the play, in concerts and rehearsals.”
"The memory of the physical experience of playing this string quartet has never left me despite my choice to abandon classical music to favor physical theater and later dance. Having practiced music from the age of six to my thirties, twenty- four years daily working on the violin and later the viola, I wonder if my choreographic approach has not always been, in reality, a musical one: instead of sounds, movements, gestures, impulses and displacements as material for composing. This hypothesis intrigues me. What better opportunity to put it to the test than working with the String Quartet no. 8 by Dimitri Shostakovich that has affected me so strongly in the past?"
Pol Pi
More information on Latitudes contemporaines website.
Creation :
June 2022 at Montpellier Danse
Choreography: Pol Pi /Cie NO DRAMA
Performance: Anna Faber (violin), Mia Bodet (violin), Yofdat Miron (viola) Sophie Notte (cello)
Dramaturgy: Gilles Amalvi
Lighting: Rima Ben Brahim
Costumes: La Bourette, assisted by Lucie Lizen
Sound director: Baptiste Chatel
Production : Sarah Becher
Production: NO DRAMA with the Solistenensemble Kaleidoskop
Production: Latitudes Prod
Coproductions & Residencies :
Montpellier Danse ; CCNO – National Choreographic Center of Orleans ; Fonds Transfabrik – Franco-German fund for the performing arts ; CCN – National Ballet of Marseille ; National Center for Contemporary Dance in Angers ; National Choreographic Center of Caen in Normandy, within the framework of the Accueil-studio/Ministère de la Culture ; National Choreographic Center of Rillieux-la-Pape, directed by Yuval PICK, within the framework of the Accueil-Studio ; Festival NEXT ; BUDA Kunstencentrum Courtrai ; PACT / Zollverein Essen