Ballet du Nord - Roubaix, France

Adolescent

concept, choreography: Sylvain Groud in close collaboration with the dancers
choreographer’s assistant: Agnès Canova
scenography and costume design: Françoise Pétrovitch
music: Molécule
lighting design: Michaël Dez
costumes made by: Chrystel Zingiro, Élise Dulac, Patricia Rattenni
technical direction: Robert Pereira

production: Ballet du Nord - Centre Chorégraphique National de Roubaix Hauts-de-France Coproduction Le Colisée, Théâtre de Roubaix

duration: 70’
premiere: Le Colisée – Théâtre de Roubaix, 2019

performers: Yohann Baran, Nathan Bourdon, Marie Bugnon, Pierre Chauvin-Brunet, Mathilde Delval, Laure Desplan, Alexandre Goyer, Lauriane Madelaine, Adélie Marck, Julien Raso

In this choreographic piece imagined by Sylvain Groud and plastic artist Françoise Pétrovitch, ten young dancers plunge us into the turbulent and bubbling waters of adolescence. Moving and complex silhouettes are outlined on a changing background, just like this period marked by paradoxes and metamorphoses. This rite of passage from childhood to adulthood is expressed differently in everyone, sometimes with obvious ease, sometimes with incredible violence. However, despite its inescapable nature, this critical moment remains even today more misunderstood than ever by our society despite it being the matrix. The still growing human beings fight and struggle, become rigid in order not to be vulnerable anymore all the while going through fast changing and wonderful emotions: destabilizing joy, fear and concern that restrain these bodies perhaps too full of blinding energy, the latent melancholy that these spirits sometimes suffering of fighting against internal monsters… Adolescence fascinates, questions, accuses, and becomes what we made of it: a troubled and essential moment that shapes who we are.

In 1991, Sylvain Groud graduated from the CNSMD of Paris, contemporary dance department, and received the Award for Interpretation at the Bagnolet Competition. Between 1992 and 2002, he was part of Ballet Preljocaj. With his first choreography, he was awarded at the International Competition in Paris, and later invited to create for the Bucharest National Theatre and for the Opera in Skopje. In 2007, his work “Si vous voulez bien me suivre” gathered attention. With his in situ projects such as “People” with more than 200 representations, Groud is committed to bringing dance where people do not expect it. In 2010, the Rouen Opera ordered from him “Cordes”, a performance for 8 dancers and 24 musicians under the direction of conductor Benjamin Levy. Continuing his exploration of the links between dance and music, he created “Héros Ordinaires” in 2011 for 4 dancers and 4 opera singers and “Collusion” for 4 dancers with the electronic music composer Molécule. In 2010, “Je suis descendu du plateau” was the result of an encounter with author Maylis de Kerangal. The same year, Groud was invited to Suresnes Cités Danse festival where he met five Hip-Hop dancers and created “Elles”, a work that would later become the solo “Ma leçon de Hip-Hop”. In 2012, he ordered an installation art from plastic artist Jonathan Loppin. Together, they created “Chambre 209”, a choreographic, numeric and quadri-frontal installation. A fan of Steve Reich’s music, Groud created in 2013 a participative choreography called “Music for 18 Musicians”, performed live by the Ensemble Links. In 2015, he created “Memento Vivere” with video maker Grégoire Kroganow. In 2016, Groud created “Trois Sacres” starring Bérénice Béjo and “Come Alive”, a participative choreographic battle dealing with the idea of pop icon and how we see it, which was an order from the Days Off festival by the Paris Philharmonic Orchestra. In 2018, Groud was appointed director of the National Choreographic Center of Roubaix Hauts-de-France, and created “Let’s Move!” and the duet “Dans mes Bras”. In 2019, he created “Métamorphose” and then “Adolescent” with visual artist Françoise Pétrovitch.

With the beautiful and refined paintings of Françoise Pétrovitch, the choreography of Sylvain Groud based upon Molécule’s excellent music that seems to scratch life at every moment, the magnificent and very aesthetic scenography embellished by Michaël Dez, who perfectly designed the lights and manages particularly well white and bright red, Adolescent underlines all the inherent behaviors of this very particular period for girls and boys.

© Danser Canal Historique

“Adolescent” is a resolutely modern, nervous, plastic and symmetrical work. The bodies of the ten dancers merge voluntarily. They seek, repel and attract each other, troubled by the uncertainties of their time.

© Nord Éclair