DANCE AND VIRTUAL UNREALITY IN MOTION

Transcription

DANCE
AND
VIRTUAL
UNREALITY
IN
MOTION
present
Mr Dream
Mrs Dream
DANCE
AND
VIRTUAL
UNREALITY
IN
MOTION
PREFACE
Bernard CHARLÈS
The artist and the scientist are exploring the
same mystery: both are seeking meaning and to
understand things. They look for the great laws,
whether mathematical or of perception, material or immaterial, political or logical, that govern
the ways of the world. The lights that they hold
up to illuminate their way differ—rational analysis or metaphorical fusion—but both artist and
scientist seek to compose a universal language,
whether it speaks to the heart, to the senses, or to
the intellect. Science, like art, is a way of life. Both
approaches involve imagination and creation, and
their paths often cross.
This is how a scientific company like ours,
which is always seeking out new places of expression for its technologies, came to join forces with
the great artists Marie-Claude Pietragalla and
Julien Derouault, who are constantly fanning the
flames of their scenic and aesthetic expression to
take their art to new places and spaces.
The partnership has been one, I believe, of
mutual discovery. For us engineers and technicians, it’s a pleasure to see our 3D technologies
given prominence on stage. And it’s amazing to
see that these technologies, which were designed
for big industrial projects, can also be used to
evoke nuances of feeling, provoke emotional
responses, highlight the beauty of movement, and
enhance the magic of such a show.
Marie-Claude Pietragalla and Julien Derouault
make dream and reality dance, in movement
which is that of life and which alternates between
desire and doubt, taking flight and restraint, the
light hearted and the serious. Mr & Mrs Dream
(Mr & Mme Rêve) is born from the union of two
magic lanterns, of the stage and of the worlds of
experience in 3D. Those of us who create virtual
worlds, which enable you to imagine the reality of
the future, find ourselves in natural osmosis with
the world of Eugène Ionesco, which inspired this
“virtual unreality” enchantment. It’s true: “fiction
proceeded science”, and the theatre of Eugène
Ionesco presaged the paradoxes of our dematerialized world.
Every representation of reality—whether
artistic or scientific—is a projection and an interpretation, the creation of a world. I see in the work
of Marie-Claude and Julien Derouault a profound
approach to research and to corporal, scenic, and
emotional experimentation: the desire to make
us experience the world differently, to bring their
world alive for us. Theatre invented immersive
experience; I am happy that today it receives new
support from our technicians and engineers of the
digital age.
Technology removes the constraints of the
material and the staging to serve the purpose of
the work and make the boundaries between the
real and the virtual, the temporal and the timeless,
disappear; the imaginary world thus fuses with
reality. Dance, in turn, does justice to the image,
which is no longer simply a set design or an illustration but becomes infused with meaning. The
artists don’t dance in front of, but with, the virtual
decor, which thus becomes a protagonist.
I have always looked at science as a search
for harmony, a wellspring for understanding the
past and exploring the future. What a joy to see
it playing its part in the harmony of a remarkable
composition of bodies, dreams, and life!
It’s at the source of our dreams that reality
grows. As an engineer, I thank dance for opening
up new horizons for science.
Bernard CHARLÈS
President and CEO,
Dassault Systèmes
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Eugène I
This sentence by Eugène Ionesco, summed
up in Mr & Mrs Dream, is at the heart of this
artistic project, conceived and produced by two
choreographer–dancers, Marie-Claude Pietragalla
and Julien Derouault.
In their choreographies, which have been
performed on the most prestigious stages of the
world since 2005, they have created a unique
body of work that draws on collective imagination
and deep questions: the Théâtre du corps (Theatre
of the body).
Chance or necessity
The worlds of Eugène Ionesco and these
choreographers have so much in common that it
was inevitable that they would converge: dreams
as a source of inspiration, the omnipresence
of existential questions, the sense of rhythm
and movement, the sense of the absurd turning
comical… Marie-Claude Pietragalla and Julien
Derouault had both been affected, during
their teens, by La Cantatrice chauve (The Bald
Soprano), which they had seen at the theatre.
Marie-Claude Pietragalla was later inspired by
the tragic production of Les Chaises (The Chairs),
choreographed by Maurice Béjart to the music of
Wagner, with John Neumeier and Marcia Haydée.
In 2012, Marie-Claude Pietragalla and Julien
Derouault created a burlesque rereading of The
Chairs for a young audience. On that occasion,
they met Marie-France Ionesco, the daughter
of Eugène Ionesco, and talked a lot with her,
getting a sense of Ionesco’s private life and of the
obsessions that haunted him.
They thus imagined a danced story of two
characters from Ionesco’s world, moving through
an unreal universe. They soon realized that
images would be indispensable to translate the
surrealist atmosphere that emanates from his
works. To realize this desire to pay tribute to the
author of The Bald Soprano and Rhinoceros, they
needed the spark of a meeting, followed by nearly
a year’s work. It was a year of rehearsals, trials,
long nights, doubts, misunderstandings, and
enthusiasm…
When Marie-Claude Pietragalla and Julien
Derouault, by chance—chance or necessity?—
met Mehdi Tayoubi, vice-president in charge
of experiential strategy and the “Passion for
Innovation” programme at Dassault Systèmes,
all three quickly understood what they already
had in common: a fascination with Ionesco and
the desire to mix cultures and skills to create a
new theatrical language and give substance to
the imaginary world. Each of them personifies
excellence in his or her field: one the one hand,
male and female dancers who are among the
most brilliant of their time; on the other, Dassault
Systèmes, world leader of 3D solutions, which
has made cultural engineering a flagship of its
strategy of innovation and influence. Driven by
the same ambition, they decided to do everything
in their power to “realize the dream”.
The Passion for Innovation teams got behind
Marie-Claude Pietragalla and Julien Derouault to
help them visually translate the story they had
written. Gaël Perrin, artistic director and Mehdi
Tayoubi’s collaborator of fourteen years, designed
the sets for each scene. Immersive virtual reality
and interactivity specialists, coordinated by
Benoît Marini, took on the challenge of creating
a “magical box” in which the virtual world would
unfold and into which Mr & Mrs Dream would be
plunged. The set design became a third character,
in symbiosis with the dancers.
Laurent Garnier’s music adds an extra
dimension to the quirky and tragicomic spirit that
wanted to give the piece. The musician adapted
perfectly to the world of Mr & Mrs Dream, giving
it just the right touch of humour. Marie-Claude
Pietragalla and Julien Derouault had already
commissioned Laurent Garnier to write the
soundtrack for their show Sade, or the Theatre
of Madmen, in which electro was mixed with
baroque music.
The meeting of two worlds
Mr & Mrs Dream is a work that combines art and
technology. But although these two fields, which
don’t often collaborate, have converged here
to give birth to a multi-faceted show, it wasn’t
without considerable work on both sides to adapt
to the other, because each world has its own
codes and unique constraints. Certain areas of
the stage, for example, are difficult to access with
projects, which the choreography needed to take
into account. And the pace that governs dance
and technology are often very different, as Julien
Derouault expressed very well during rehearsals:
“When we’re ready the technical
team isn’t always, and by the time
they’re ready, we aren’t any more,
etc. So we need to find a way to
line up, or at least meet halfway, so
that we have the inspiration to do
something we like, and they have
the freedom to improve the effects
linked to what we’re dancing.”
However, it was worth the effort, and the magic
box was worthy of its name, as Marie-Claude
Pietragalla highlighted:
“It’s beyond our expectations…
And at the same time, the more we
work with the technology, the more
we feel that we can do incredible
things, and so we ask even more of
it, and one thing leads to another…
I am really amazed by it all.”
However, the technology must also know how
to disappear, to become invisible to give way to
emotion…
“Truth is in our dreams”
Eugène Ionesco
Mr & Mrs Dream,
two characters who have escaped from
the imagination of their author, Eugène
Ionesco, wander through his plays like
stages of their lives. They pass through
time, reinvent their history, dream of their
love, and measure themselves against
reality in the space of a moment.
Prologue
Scene by scene
“I have the impression that
there isn’t a reason for anything
and that alone we push against
an incomprehensible force.”
E. Ionesco, “L’auteur et ses problèmes”,
Revue de Métaphysique et de Morale, no. 4, 1963.
The opening scene shows a couple moving
about in the affluent lounge of a large house,
which evokes the petty-bourgeois world present
in many of Ionesco’s works: we could be in the
home of Mr and Mrs Smith, the protagonists of
The Bald Soprano.
“[We need to be virtually
bludgeoned into] detachment
from our daily lives, our habits
and mental laziness, which
conceal from us the strangeness
of the world.
[…] the real must be in a way
dislocated, before it can be
reintegrated.”
E. Ionesco, Notes and Counter-notes, op. cit., p.25.
The two characters observe the passing of time
“Each of us has surely felt
at moments that the substance
of the world is dream-like,
that the walls are no longer solid,
that we seem to be able to see
through everything into a spaceless
universe made up of pure light
and colour; at such a moment
the whole of life, the whole history
of the world, becomes useless,
senseless and impossible.”
E. Ionesco, Notes and Counter-notes, translated
from the French by Donald Watson.
London: John Calder, 1964, p.169.
We are with the Author, the source of the
fantasy. Time ticks by, faster and faster. The place
grows old, but not the characters. The relentless
flow of time is a common theme with Ionesco,
notably expressed by Jacqueline in Jack, or The
Submission: “You are chronometrable.” The walls
disappear bit by bit, the furniture evaporates.
without reacting. Their movements are understated, mundane. They display this “incomprehensible strength” while the decor is subject to a
“dislocation of the real”.
Noface is God
Scene by scene
“[It is enough for me to think
of it as perfectly realistic, for] reality
is rooted in the unreal.”
Two twin beings, almost identical, are born
from this creature, from this fantasy: Mr and
Mrs Dream.
The cellular division symbolizes the birth of
their own individuality and their awakening to
the world. The organic choreography sketches
the contours of these two characters under
construction.
An immaculate creature then appears whose
presence will recur throughout the piece. This
Noface represents at once God, the power behind
everything, and the spirit of the Author, like an
avatar of Eugène Ionesco. He is the figure of the
imaginary; he is the dream incarnate, materialized.
“I therefore noted that the passions
or vague desires of the author, that
all the reasons he was giving himself,
or that he was unable to give,
for writing don’t count, or are
surpassed. The work is this
surpassing. The work has escaped
him. It is something other than
what he wanted to make it.
It is an autonomous being.”
E. Ionesco, “L’auteur et ses problèmes”,
Revue de Métaphysique et de Morale, no. 4, 1963.
As with Ionesco, it’s the imagination—that of
the Author but also ours—which creates the real.
“And if some people do not like
constructions of the imagination
this does not alter the fact
that they exist; they are created
because they answer a profound
spiritual need.”
The Seasons
Scene by scene
This rustic countryside symbolizes a lost
paradise, that of childhood. Ionesco spent part of
his childhood in a small village in the Mayenne, of
which he retained vivid memories.
“I have childhood memories,
images from childhood, the lights
and colours of childhood. […]
childhood in the country, in La
Chapelle-Anthenaise; they were
days of plenty, happiness, light
that I experienced there.”
E. Ionesco, Entre la vie et le rêve, Gallimard, 1996
(1st ed. 1977), pp. 12–13.
Mr and Mrs Dream develop in these memories,
which are also theirs. They regain the sublimated
energy of childhood and grasp the beauty of the
world, of nature. In this Eden, they also discover
one another. Their dance is lyrical, free, wonderful.
However, these memories are also tinted with
melancholy, as the feeling of eternity that this
Garden of Eden gives them is only an illusion,
a mirage. The seasons change in the course of a
day, announcing death to come.
“I have always been obsessed
by death. Since the age of four,
when I first knew I was going to die,
this anguish has never left me.
It was as though I had suddenly
realised that there was
no way of escape and nothing
to be done about it.”
Childhood has passed, but something of it
remains…
“… And yet, and yet we are here.
It could be there is some reason,
which escapes our reason, for
existence: that too is possible.”
Daily Life
Scene by scene
“I have never quite succeeded
in getting used to existence,
whether it be the existence
of the world or of other people,
or above all of myself. Sometimes
it seems to me that the forms of
life are suddenly emptied of their
contents, reality is unreal, words
are nothing but sounds bereft
of sense, these houses and this
sky are no longer anything
but façades concealing nothing,
people appear to be moving
about automatically
and without reason …”
E. Ionesco, Notes and Counter-notes,
op. cit., p.163.
Mr and Mrs Dream wake as if from a dream,
each in their own apartment. They get out of their
beds with great difficulty, then go about their
daily actions, which they execute and repeat in
a bizarre manner, repetitive and disturbed. They
choreograph their habitual movements, like welloiled automatons, driven by necessity, dazed
by the utility of things. Mr and Mrs Dream thus
become “ready to dance”.
“[…] the fact of being astonishes
us, in a world that now seems
all illusion and pretence, in which
all human behaviour tells of
absurdity and all history of absolute
futility; all reality and all language
appear to lose their articulation,
to disintegrate and collapse,
so what possible reaction is there
left, when everything has ceased
to matter, but to laugh at it all?”
op. cit., pp.169–70.
The Bald
Soprano
Scene by scene
The two apartments are now joined and Mr
and Mrs Dream find themselves together again.
Fragments of dialogue – extracts from The Bald
Soprano – written on the walls seem to emerge
strangely from the two characters. The vacuity of
the dialogue expresses the absurdity of everyday
life, underlined by the choreography.
“In my first play, La Cantatrice
chauve, which started off as
an attempt to parody the theatre,
and hence a certain kind of
human behaviour, it was
by plunging into banality,
by draining the sense from
the hollowest clichés
of everyday language that
I tried to render the strangeness
that seems to pervade
our whole existence.”
op. cit., pp.26–7.
“To feel the absurdity or
improbability of everyday life
and language is already to have
transcended it; in order to transcend
it, you must first saturate yourself
in it. The comic is the unusual pure
and simple; nothing surprises me
more than banality; the ‘surreal’ is
there, within our reach, in our daily
conversation.”
op. cit., pp.171–2.
The Words
Scene by scene
Mr Dream having left, Mrs Dream is alone,
surrounded by words.
These staccato words, more and more troubling,
are those of the teacher in The Lesson. They start
to dance around her, evoking the automatic writing
of the surrealists. Mrs Dream is submerged in the
writing of the Author, in this ocean of signs. Her
dance seems to be an emanation of discursive
thoughts; she, too, is writing.
The absurd, the unusual are implied by a link
to language in which words seem to lose their
meaning, becoming tools without signification.
This flood of words threatens to overwhelm
Mrs Dream.
“One fine day, some years ago
now, I had the idea of making
dialogue by stringing together
the most commonplace phrases
consisting of the most meaningless
words […] My initiative was
ill-rewarded: overcome by a
proliferation of corpse-like words,
stunned by the automatism of
conversation, I almost gave way
to disgust, unspeakable misery,
nervous depression and positive
asphyxiation.”
op. cit., p.86.
“For me, what had happened
was a kind of collapse of reality.
The words had turned into
sounding shells devoid of
meaning; the characters too,
of course, had been emptied
of psychology and the world
appeared to me in an unearthly,
perhaps its true, light, beyond
understanding and governed
by arbitrary laws.”
op. cit., p.185.
Scene by scene
The Radiant City
`
Mr Dream finds himself in a town reminiscent
of the radiant city of The Killer. The words that
gambolled joyfully in the previous scene here are
organized to form streets and the walls of buildings, a complete urban landscape.
“The world is strange if we look
at it carefully with fresh eyes
in the moments of respite that
are afforded us in the hustle
and bustle of daily life.”
E. Ionesco, “L’auteur et ses problèmes”, op. cit.
The city, certainly radiant, imposes its rhythm
on Mr Dream, who must continually keep moving,
work, complete programmed tasks. He tries to
determine his own pace, to extricate himself from
the machine, to rebel, but the forces of order put
a stop to these suicidal urges and put him back on
the “right track”. He returns to his post but soon,
exhausted, has a breakdown.
“Just watch people hurrying
busily through the streets. They
seem preoccupied, look neither
left nor right, but have their eyes
fixed on the ground like dogs.
They rush straight ahead,
but always without looking
where they are going, for they
are mechanically covering
a well-known route, mapped
out in advance. It is exactly the
same in all the great cities of the
world. Modern, universal man
is man in a hurry, he has no time,
he is a prisoner of necessity,
he does not understand that
a thing need have no use; nor
does he understand that
fundamentally it is the useful
thing that can become a useless
and overwhelming burden.”
Her and Him
Scene by scene
Mr Dream lies on the ground, brought down by
the urban machine, in which he doesn’t belong.
Mrs Dream appears and the town vanishes bit by
bit. She dances freely, as though in suspension.
Their encounter slowly erases their environment:
their nascent love isolates them from the world.
During their duet, a new style of movement
is born, breaking through the old. They rid
themselves of their automatic reflexes and begin
to touch one another, understand one another,
and create a new choreography together.
Jack’s monologue
Scene by scene
Jacques : When I was born,
I was nearly fourteen. That’s
why I found it easier than most
people to realize what life was
all about. No, it didn’t take me long.
And I wouldn’t accept the situation.
I said so, straight.
E. Ionesco, Jacques or Obedience, in Plays: Volume I,
translated by Donald Watson. London: John Calder, 1958.
Mr Dream divides himself into a plethora of
subconscious critics.
In a quasi-hypnotic state, Mr Dream launches
into an introspective speech, picking up the monologue of Jack, the hero of Jack, or The Submission.
We enter the subconscious of Mr Dream, torn
apart by all kinds of familial and social conventions, just like Jack, who refuses to fall in line, to
marry, and have children.
The Marriage
Scene by scene
“The work of art asks to be born,
just as a child asks to be born.
It springs from the depths of
the soul. A child is not born for
society’s sake, although society
claims him. He is born for the sake
of being born. A work of art too
is born for the sake of being born,
it imposes itself on its author,
it demands existence
without asking or considering
whether society has called for
it or not. Obviously, society can
also claim a work of art and use
it as it likes: it can condemn it
or destroy it. A work of art may
or may not fulfil a social function,
but it is not equivalent to this
social function; its essence
is supra-social.”
op. cit., p.153.
Mrs Dream is transformed into a monstrous
creature, with five faces, reminiscent of Roberta,
Jack’s fiancée in Jack, or The Submission, and later
his wife in The Future is in Eggs. Her movements
are bestial, almost possessed.
Mr Dream enters a chapel, carrying his egg,
ready to take the plunge, to finally accept the
situation. But he is frightened by this sprawling
creature that is pushing him to spawn children.
Like Jack, Mr Dream rejects the transition, via
marriage, into the adult world. He decides all the
same to make a baby, on the altar that has become
an operating table.
They thus begin an absurd, bizarre, and
dislocated pas de deux. Mrs Dream is a sort of
surrealist “black swan”, ready to do anything to
possess Mr Dream.
The god-child appears as Noface personified.
But barely is the child born and his birth
celebrated, than he falls, already “broken” by his
parents.
The Corpse
Scene by scene
“In the same way Amédée
ou comment s’en débarrasser,
where the scene is laid in the flat
of a petit bourgeois couple, is a
realistic play into which fantastic
elements have been introduced,
a contrast intended at one
and the same time to banish
and recall the ‘realism’.”
Alerted by the noise, the police enter and arrest
Mrs Dream. Mr Dream flees, literally flying away
from them, like Amédée in Amédée, or How To
Get Rid Of It, or Bérenger in A Stroll In The Air.
We find Mr and Mrs Dream in an apartment,
where the little stillborn being lies on the ground
in a corner. Soon the corpse inflates before our
very eyes, and anxiety appears. The choreography
is agitated, in synch with the atmosphere of
dread.
Mr and Mrs Dream argue, but the corpse
continues to grow, imperturbable – like in Amédée
or How To Get Rid Of It, where the cadaver also
symbolizes what is left unsaid between the
couple. No longer able to support this “giant”, the
walls of the apartment collapse and are replaced
by the cosmos: the scenery floats in space,
suspended in the immense starry sky. The corpse
deflates like an ordinary child’s balloon and falls
back into the arms of Mr Dream. Everything is
destroyed and Mr and Mrs Dream, separated,
can’t reach each other.
Taking Flight
Scene by scene
Mr Dream dances among the stars and jumps
from meteorite to asteroid. Like a modern Michel
Fokine or an astronautical Fred Astaire, he dances
joyously and naïvely: he is the master of his own
destiny. The universe turns with him, giving him
a feeling of ecstasy, fulfilment, and a return to
childhood…
He is at once Icarus and Saint-Exupéry’s Little
Prince, conquering green planets, and sending red
planets spinning, playing with comets…
The Interrogation
Scene by scene
“[…] I can still remember how
my mother could not drag me
away from the Punch and
Judy [Guignol] show in the
Luxembourg Gardens. I would go
there day after day and could stay
there, spellbound, all day long.
But I did not laugh. That Punch
and Judy show kept me there
open-mouthed, watching those
puppets talking, moving and
cudgelling each other. It was
the very image of the world that
appeared to me, strange and
improbable but true as true,
in the profoundly simplified form
of caricature, as though to stress
the grotesque and brutal nature
of the truth.”
op. cit., p.18.
Out of synch, burlesque, the police appearing
as shadow puppets evoke the violence of social
order, often denounced by Ionesco, notably in
Victims of Duty.
Mrs Dream, alone on her chair, seems dumb-
founded or stunned. She awaits, not the Emperor,
as in The Chairs, but the end of her ordeal. Is the
interrogation a dream or is it real?
Their pantomime ballet is reminiscent of the
Guignol puppet shows that Ionesco enjoyed.
The Prison
Scene by scene
“A curtain, an impassable
wall stands between me and the
world, between me and myself;
matter fills every corner, takes up
all the space and its weight
annihilates all freedom; the horizon
closes in and the world becomes
a stifling dungeon.”
Mrs Dream finally awakes, but is imprisoned,
both within herself and within the set.
She thrashes about, unties herself, and dances
in this closed space. The sleeves of her costume
grow infinitely longer, like chains. She dreams and
imagines herself elsewhere; she leaves her body
while dancing. Is this her last dance?
“[Moreover,] I have always been
aware of the impossibility
of communication, of isolation
and encirclement; I write in order
to fight encirclement.”
She loses herself in thoughts, goes into a
trance, but nothing will free her: she remains
imprisoned in her cell.
The Escape
Scene by scene
“[Humour also provides …]—
the only opportunity we have
of detaching ourselves from
our tragi-comic human condition
or the sickness of living; assuming
of course it has been recognised,
assimilated and experienced.
To become fully conscious of the
atrocious and to laugh at it is
to master the atrocious.”
Mr Dream falls from space and tumbles
violently to the ground. The myth has caught up
with him: his wings have flown away. He lands
with a crash in Mrs Dream’s cell.
Reunited at last, Mr and Mrs Dream begin a
dance of reunion, parodying Fred Astaire and
Ginger Rogers.
The bars of the cell slowly become gigantic and
gradually move aside…
The Rhinoceros
Scene by scene
Mr and Mrs Dream, both now free, arrive in
a place that looks like paradise, where Noface
welcomes them. It’s the end of the journey. The
end of their story?
They are moving around in this peaceful
world when, suddenly, everything changes. An
army of rhinoceros charges, filling the space, and
recalling those who gradually invade the town in
Rhinoceros.
Noface has become a dictator.
“Authors have always wanted
to make propaganda. The great ones
are those who have failed.”
Mr and Mrs Dream are caught in the trap.
They dance with the rhinos, accentuating the
choreography, enduring the frantic rhythm of
Wagner’s music. They adopt the violent and
determined steps of the rhinos; are they finally
going to join the herd?
“If our planet is to-day in mortal
danger, it is because we have
had too many saviours;
saviours hate humanity, because
they cannot accept it.”
At the end of this collective hysteria, this
indoctrination, everything explodes in confetti;
then nothing more. The fruits of the void, the
flowers of nothingness…Mr and Mrs Dream have
disappeared.
“Forms of rhinoceritis of every
kind, from left and right, are there
to threaten humanity when men
have no time to think or collect
themselves; and they lie in wait
for mankind to-day, because
we have lost all feeling and taste
for genuine solitude.”
Epilogue
Scene by scene
A technician sweeps the stage that has become
white again, empty apart from feathers and
confetti. He discovers a doll in the effigy of
Noface and takes it. What if this Noface was our
inner child? What if the world was nothing but a
dreamed reality?
A performance by
The Pietragalla-Derouault Company, the Théâtre du Corps,
&
Dassault Systèmes, the 3DEXPERIENCE Company
Freely inspired by the work of Eugène Ionesco
Original idea, conception, choreography, and staging
Music production
Laurent Garnier
Mrs Dream
Marie-Claude Pietragalla
Mr Dream
Julien Derouault
Costume design
Gaël Perrin, Johanna Hilaire and Jackie Tadéoni
Dassault Systèmes team directed by
Mehdi Tayoubi
Conception and creation of the visual world
Gaël Perrin
Virtual reality and technology production
Benoît Marini
Technological development
Leïla Aït-Kaci, David Arenou, Jacques Lefaucheux
Logistics and technical management of tours
Stars-Europe
Length: 1 hr 25 min
Marie-Claude Pietragalla, an acclaimed and
iconic figure of French dance, entered the Paris
Opera Ballet School in 1973 at nine years old and
was hired by the Paris Opera Ballet in 1979.
She has danced the major roles of the classical
ballet repertoire (Giselle, Swan Lake, Don Quixote,
Cinderella, Romeo and Juliet, Raymonda, La
Bayadère, The Nutcracker, Coppélia…) on stages
throughout the world and has worked with the
greatest contemporary choreographers, including
Maurice Béjart, Rudolf Nureyev, William Forsythe,
Jiri Kylian, Roland Petit, Jerome Robbins, Mats
Ek, John Neumeier, Martha Graham, Kenneth
MacMillan, Serge Lifar, Georges Balanchine, and
Merce Cunningham.
In 1990, she was named Étoile (principal dancer)
of the Paris Opera Ballet by Patrick Dupond
following her performance in the role of Kitri in
Don Quixote.
In parallel to her career as a principal dancer,
she has also developed a career as a choreographer
and has created more than 25 works to date.
She left the Paris Opera Ballet in 1998 to take
up the position of General Director of the National
Ballet of Marseille and its school, a post she
held for five seasons. With Julien Derouault, she
choreographed nine new works there, including
Sakountala, a remarkable work on the life and
work of the sculptor Camille Claudel; Ni Dieu ni
maître, a dreamlike journey into Léo Ferré’s music
and work; and Don Quixote, a fictional ballet that
blends classical technique with contemporary
dance movements.
In 2000, she was the first dancer to perform on
the stage of the legendary Olympia theatre in Paris
with her solo Don’t Look Back (choreographed by
Carolyn Carlson), and introduced dance to a new
audience.
She starred alongside Florent Pagny and
Francois Cluset in Jacques Cortal’s 2003 film
Quand je vois le soleil.
In 2004, she founded the Théâtre du corps
with Julien Derouault.
In 2005, she choreographed and danced with
Derouault in Souviens-toi… and the two dancers
were also invited by the Singapore Ballet to
choreograph The Wedding and the The Rite of
Spring for the Singapore Dance Festival. In 2006,
the National Theatre of Belgrade invited the pair
to recreate their work Fleurs d’automne.
the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique
et Danse de Paris.
Pietragalla joined the jury of season three
(2012) of Danse avec les stars, where for nine
weeks she shared her passion for dance with six
million viewers.
In 2013, with Derouault, she conceived,
choreographed, and danced in a 3D virtual unreality show, Mr & Mrs Dream (Mr & Mme Rêve,
co-produced with Dassault Systèmes), inspired by
the work of the Eugène Ionesco and his Theatre
of the Absurd.
In 2006, the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region commis-
sioned a work from Pietragalla and Derouault to
commemorate the mining catastrophe of Courrières: Human Conditions.
At the instigation of designer Pierre Cardin,
Pietragalla and Derouault choreographed and
performed two new works: in 2006, Sade, or The
Theatre of Madmen and Marco Polo, which world
premiered at the Beijing Olympics Cultural Festival in August 2008.
In 2009, she performed The Temptation of Eve,
a solo choreographed for her by Derouault that
triumphed at the Palace theatre in Paris in 2011.
In 2010, she performed one of the leading roles
in Julien Maury and Alexander Bustillo’s film Livid.
She choreographed and produced Poets’ Night
in 2011, a work conceived and performed by
Julien Derouault, which blends electro, dance,
piano, and the poetry of Louis Aragon.
The following year, with Derouault, she
choreographed and produced The Chairs?, a version of Eugène Ionesco’s play in dance aimed at
young people. The pair also created Clowns for
Awards
Marie-Claude Pietragalla was named
Officier des Arts et des Lettres in July
2011, having previously been awarded
the Chevalier de la Légion d’honneur
in 2008, the Chevalier de l’Ordre National
du Mérite in 1997, and the Chevalier
des Arts et Lettres in 1994.
In 1998, she made her entrance into
both the Musée Grévin (waxworks
museum in Paris) and the Petit Larousse
(French dictionary). In the same year,
she also won both the Prix Paul Belmondo
and the coveted Prix Benois de la Danse
(Moscow).
Bibliography
Pietragalla is the author of La Légende
de la danse (Flammarion, 1999),
and co-author of Écrire la Danse,
in collaboration with Michel Archimbaud,
(Éditions Séguier—Archimbaud, 2001)
and, with Dominique Simonnet,
La Femme qui danse (Éditions du Seuil,
2008).
Julien Derouault began dancing at the Mans
At the instigation of designer Pierre Cardin,
In 2013, with Pietragalla, he conceived,
In the repertory of the Théâtre du corps, he
Julien Derouault has a strong track record of
Conservatoire then at the CNR in Angers. In 1994,
he perfected his skills with Larrio Ekson and
Rheda. In 1996, he joined the École Nationale
Supérieure de Danse de Marseille and was hired
a few months later by the Ballet National de
Marseille, then directed by Roland Petit.
Pietragalla and Derouault choreographed and
performed two new works: in 2006, Sade, or
The Theatre of Madmen and Marco Polo, which
world premiered at the Beijing Olympics Cultural
Festival in August 2008.
In 1999, he was made soloist of the Ballet
is a highly accomplished dancer: as the unusual
Mr Dream in the duo Mr & Mrs Dream (Mr &
Mme Rêve, Grand Rex, 2014), as the charismatic
dandy in Poets’ Night, in his incredibly energetic
solo in Marco Polo (Beijing Olympics, 2008), as
an exceptional Marquis de Sade in Sade, or The
Theatre of Madmen (Espace Cardin, 2007), as the
machine-man in Human Conditions (Palais des
Sports, 2007), and as Pietragalla’s outstanding
partner in Souviens-toi… (Mogador Theatre,
2006).
National de Marseille under the direction of
Marie-Claude Pietragalla. He performed all
the leading roles of the company’s repertoire
and worked with Claude Brumachon, Richard
Wherlock, Rudi van Dantzig, William Forsythe,
Rui Horta, ... He became assistant choreographer
in 2000, and collaborated on the choreography of
works by Marie-Claude Pietragalla.
He created the role of Death in the remarkable
dance work Sakountala, which was premiered at
the Palais des Congrès in 2002, as well as the title
role of Don Quixote (Opéra de Marseille, 2003)
and that of Ni Dieu ni maître (Olympia, 2003), an
iconic dance based on Léo Ferré’s music and work.
In 2004, he founded the Théâtre du corps
with Marie-Claude Pietragalla.
In 2005, he choreographed and danced with
In 2009, Derouault choreographed The Tempta
tion of Eve for Pietragalla, a solo that triumphed
at the Palace theatre in Paris in 2011.
In 2010, he conceived Poets’ Night, a musical
work choreographed by Pietragalla that blends
electro, dance, piano, and the poetry of Louis
Aragon.
Pietragalla in Souviens-toi… and the two dancers
were also invited by the Singapore Ballet to
choreograph The Wedding and The Rite of Spring
for the Singapore Dance Festival. In 2006, the
National Theatre of Belgrade invited the pair to
recreate their work Fleurs d’automne.
With Pietragalla in 2012, he choreographed
and produced The Chairs?, a version of Eugène
Ionesco’s play in dance aimed at young people.
The pair also created Clowns for the Conservatoire
National Supérieur de Musique et Danse de Paris.
In
choreographer, Derouault has been teaching
different forms of dance since 2000, including
running choreographic workshops and training
programmes for schools, people with a disability,
young people, and professionals.
2006, the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region
commissioned a work from Pietragalla and
Derouault to commemorate the mining
catastrophe of Courrières: Human Conditions.
In parallel to his career as a dancer and
choreographed, and danced in a 3D virtual
unreality show, Mr & Mrs Dream (Mr & Mme Rêve,
co-produced with Dassault Systèmes), inspired by
the work of the Eugène Ionesco and his Theatre
of the Absurd.
working with musicians, including Christophe,
Laurent Garnier, and Didier Lockwood.
In 2013, he choreographed Emmanuel Moire’s
video clip Beau malheur and also choreographed
and danced in Judith’s video clip Badaboum.
In 2005, Marie-Claude Pietragalla, principal
dancer of the Paris Opera, ex-General Director
of the Ballet National de Marseille, and Julien
Derouault, ex-soloist of the Ballet National de
Marseille, went into partnership to create an
independent dance company in Île-de-France,
the Compagnie Pietragalla-Derouault, in order
to create, show, and produce their work named
Théâtre du corps (Theatre of the body).
“To dance is to question yourself;
it’s to explore the deepest part
of your being…”
The
collaboration between Marie-Claude
Pietragalla and Julien Derouault is based on
constant synergy, not only between themselves
but also with the performers of their works.
Their choreography presents a dual vision of the
world: real and fantasy, masculine and feminine,
abrupt and lyrical, free and structured, funny
and dramatic. It questions humanity and its
relationship to the imaginary and unconscious
through the body. Their artistic desire is to
reveal the body by multiplying the facets of its
representation.
Théâtre du corps mixes languages: all forms
of art—dance, literature, music, theatre, mime,
circus, video, martial arts, and painting—are
sources of inspiration that feed into each other
and open up a new work space.
Dance is, in essence, a multidimensional art, so
in their choreographies the body creates volumes,
shaping energy to release yet more, a projection,
and a sensation. Here, dance is seen as something
beyond an intellectual and analytical study; it
becomes the art of feeling.
Humanity remains at the centre of their ins
piration and research, through history, collective
memory, and in relation to intimacy. Their work
questions want we are made of and what defines
us as human beings.
Our body is a conveyor of the unconscious,
of dreams, and imagination. Their choreographic
art becomes the medium for the freeing of the
unconscious and that enables this primitive link
to be re-established. Dance relates to our origins:
movement, humanity’s first mode of expression,
before that of language, is the dialogue that brings
us face to face with our own primitive urges.
Théâtre du corps’s productions
Théâtre du corps’s first production, in 2005,
was Souviens-toi…, a deeply moving work about
childhood and memories.
The same year, Marie-Claude Pietragalla and
Julien Derouault were invited by the Singapore
Dance Theatre to choreograph The Wedding
and The Right of Spring for the Singapore
Dance Festival. In 2006, The National Theatre
in Belgrade invited them to recreate their ballet
Fleurs d’automne.
Human Conditions was the result of a three-
year partnership with the Nord-Pas-de-Calais
region. It was inspired by mining history and
shown in the context of the commemoration of
the Courrières mine disaster. The show was so
successful that it ran for three years.
Fashion designer Pierre Cardin commissioned
the choreographers to create a work about the life
and works of the Marquis de Sade for his 2007
Lacoste festival: Sade, of The Theatre of Madmen,
followed by a series of shows in Espace Cardin in
early 2008.
Pierre Cardin called on Pietragalla and Derouault
to create another innovative work: Marco Polo
had its world premiere at the Beijing Olympics
in 2008. With eighteen dancers on stage, the
show combined animated images with dance for
the first time. After touring for more than eight
weeks in China, Marco Polo was shown at the
Palais des Congrès in Paris, then in St Mark’s
Square in Venice. Audience figures worldwide
have exceeded 150,000.
The Théâtre du corps opened its dance studios
on the outskirts of Paris, in Bagnolet, in 2008.
In 2009, Pietragalla and Derouault created The
Temptation of Eve, which marked the return of
Pietragalla in an intimate solo. The work was
shown in Paris for three months at the Palace
theatre and celebrated its 100th performance a
year later at the Cirque Royal in Brussels.
Poets’ Night, a multidisciplinary show that
combines dance, electro, piano, and the poetry
of Louis Aragon, was shown at the Espace Cardin
in 2012.
In 2012, the pair choreographed Clowns, for the
Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et
de Danse de Paris (the Paris National Academy of
Music and Dance).
In 2013, the Théâtre du corps began an Ionesco
cycle with two productions: The Chairs?, a danced
play aimed at a young audience, and Mr and
Mrs Dream.
Choreographic repertory
of Marie-Claude Pietragalla and Julien Derouault
2012 Clowns
2012 Mr & Mrs Dream (Mr & Mme Rêve)
2012 The Chairs?
2012 Poetic Variations
2011 Poets’ Night
2010 Le Temps brûle
2009 The Temptation of Eve
2008 Marco Polo
2007 Sade, or The Theatre of Madmen
2006 Human Conditions
2005 Souviens-toi…
2005 Ivresse
2005 The Wedding
2005 The Rite of Spring
2003 Ni Dieu ni maître
2003 Metamorphoses
2003 Don Quixote
2002 Illusions of Eternity
2000 Sakountala
2000 Fleurs d’automne
2000 Raymonda (3rd act)
2000 Giselle
Choreographic repertory
of Marie-Claude Pietragalla
1999 Vita
1999 L’Âme perdue
1996 Triangle infernal
1996 Corsica
1988 Boromobile
Photo © L’œil du Diaph
From Industry to Culture
The main vocation of Dassault Systèmes, The
3DExperience Company, is to provide industry
with modelling, simulation, and 3D-experience
software that enables the designing and testing
of different types of products. These virtual
worlds in 3D, antechambers of the real, are at the
heart of industrial innovation.
In 2005, through its “Passion for Innovation” pro-
gramme, which gave birth to the Lab of the same
name, Dassault Systèmes decided to put its technology and knowledge at the service of research,
education, culture, and artistic creation, becoming an ambitious player in the cultural sector. All
invention, all innovation should challenge convictions, ask questions about the past and the future,
and step aside from well-trodden paths: that’s
why the Passion for Innovation Lab partners with
researchers, historians, and artists, for whom questioning is a driving force. The heart of this project
is sharing skills and fruitful exchanges around a
common language in 3D; it’s about rediscovering
the advantages of an exploratory approach where
mistakes help you move forward.
Between 2005 and 2007, French architect JeanPierre Houdin was able to test his theory about
the construction, 4,500 years ago, of the Cheops
pyramid – a building far from having revealed all
its secrets. Teams from Dassault Systèmes, using
the company’s software, created a life-size virtual
simulation of the construction method Houdin
imagined , and verified it as plausible (khufu.3ds.
com). The entire Giza plateau has also been modelled, with the cooperation of the Museum of Fine
Arts in Boston and Harvard University, providing Egyptologists with a remarkable educational
and research tool (giza.3ds.com). Harvard University now has a room equipped with virtual
reality software where teachers give immersive
and interactive lessons.
In 2012, through a collaboration with historians
and archeologists specializing in the study of
Paris, teams from Passion for Innovation rebuilt
Paris in 3D at different moments of its history.
This reconstruction has given rise to an internet
site (paris.3ds.com), an iPad app that has been
rated as among the best educational apps, a coproduction with Canal+ of five films on the history
of Paris, and an illustrated book, Paris, La ville à
remonter le temps, published by Flammarion.
The site and app enable you to visit, notably, the
baths and arenas of the Roman city of Lutetia, the
site of Notre-Dame in the course of construction,
the Louvre of Charles V, and the World’s Fair of
1889. The aim is scientific but also sensory
and emotional, with virtual reality offering an
extraordinary experience of being immersed in a
period in time.
In collaboration with the Ministry for Culture
and Communication, the Passion for Innovation
Lab has also reproduced virtually the Cordouan
lighthouse, the first lighthouse to be classed as a
historical monument. An interactive app enables
you to see it in different centuries and to visit it
while changing various elements of its aspect and
lighting, so that you can view it by night or day,
in a storm, etc. (cordouan.culture.fr).
In September 2012, this experience was shared
live, in front of the Hôtel de Ville de Paris, by
more than 15,000 people.
Lastly, in collaboration with the French Navy and
Drassm (the Marine and Submarine Archaeological
Research Department of France), the Passion for
Innovation Lab has reproduced virtually, and in 3D,
the wreck of La Lune, Louis XIV’s flagship, which
sank off the coast of Toulon in 1664, thus helping
underwater archeologists to make the most of their
interventions, while offering historians and internet
users a virtual submarine dive to the remarkably
well-preserved wreck. (lalune.3ds.com).
Fictional worlds extended
via interactivity and 3D
Although the Passion for Innovation Lab
is especially visible in the service of French and
global architectural heritage, film and cartoons
have not been forgotten.
The following year, on the release of Luc
Besson’s Arthur et la vengeance de Maltazard,
the Lab teamed up with EuropaCorp to create new
forms of interaction between film and audiences,
online as well as in cinemas. Spin-off animations,
games, and other merchandise were offered,
using 3D interactive technology (minimoys.3ds.
com). Subscribers were able to create an avatar of
a character from the film and direct it in a 3D video
clip; cinemas were equipped for 3D interactive
screenings, a cross between going the cinema
and visiting a theme park. This partnership was
renewed in 2011 with Éric Bergeron’s film A
Monster in Paris.
In 2012 and 2013, the Passion for Innovation
Lab became involved with two highly talented
comic strip artists, offering them a way of
extending their world via virtual interactive 3D
creations.
The comic strip by François Schuiten La Douce
(Casterman, 2012), which tells the story of a steam
train and its mechanic/driver, offers illustrations
in virtual reality: via the webcam of a computer,
the steam train animates itself and travels through
the countryside drawn by François Schuiten. The
Passion for Innovation teams have also built a 3D
digital model of La Douce, a legendary steam train
of the 1930s, the fastest of its time. They thus
contribute to preserving a rich industrial heritage,
while bringing a creator’s imaginary world to life
(12-ladouce.com/en).
In 2008, the Cheops project gave rise to Geode,
the first 3D immersive experience in real time
aimed at the general public: viewers equipped
with 3D glasses were taken on an interactive
journey across the Giza plateau as it was 45
centuries ago, with commentary from Jean-Pierre
Houdin. A documentary, Khéops révélé (Cheops
Revealed), was broadcast by many television
channels across the world (France Télévisions,
National Geographic, the BBC, ZDF in Germany,
and NHK in Japan).
Travelling into the past doesn’t stop you
projecting yourself into a future, even if it’s
imaginary. During the latter half of 2013,
visitors to the Musée des Arts et Métiers in Paris
were able to discover, thanks to a new type of
holographic display, an object from La Femme
piège by Enki Bilal—the “script walker”. The
Passion for Innovation Lab provided a virtual
existence for this strange insect-like device, by
creating a 3D model of it and integrating it into
a universe where the virtual and the real combine
(enkibilal.arts-et-metiers.net). Thanks to the
techniques of rapid prototyping and 3D printing,
the script walker appeared in the real world. At
the heart of this museum dedicated to engineers
and technological inventions, Dassault Systèmes
took on the role of intermediary between art
and science, the imaginary and technological
innovation.
Inventing a new
scenic language
Today, Dassault Systèmes is pursuing its role as
an innovator by moving into the world of the performing arts. In partnering with the PietragallaDerouault company for Mr & Mrs Dream, the
Passion for Innovation Lab has contributed to the
invention of a new scenic language that is rooted
in the imagination and made possible by immersive virtual reality and simulation technology.
A new creativity can be found at the crossroads
between art, science, and technology, in this
attempt to make virtual unreality visible. The traditional separation between science and rationality on the one hand and dreams and imagination
on the other needs to be rethought, as it is a fact
that research and the processes of technological
innovation make almost as much use of intuition,
imagination, and sensory perception as they do of
scientific knowledge.
3D simulation tools are already being used at
all stages of industrial innovation, from design to
distribution; now now they can also be found at
work upstream in the world of the imagination.
Because myths pre-exist inventions, creating the
real is also about reinventing spaces for simulation
and experimentation that will encourage the
emotional sparks and intuitions that are the
precursors of all innovation.
The engineering of cultural projects is a way for
Dassault Systèmes to explore other approaches
and methods of innovation, partnering with
people with different and complementary skills
on a wide range of projects, all of which have the
common goal of breathing energy into projects
and maybe even kindling new ones.
“I have always considered imaginative
truth to be more profound, more loaded
with significance, than everyday
reality. Realism […] never looks
beyond reality. It narrows it down,
diminishes it, falsifies it, and leaves
out of account the obsessive truths
that are most fundamental to us: love,
death and wonder. It presents man
in a perspective that is narrow and
alien; truth lies in our dreams, in our
imagination: every moment of our
lives confirms this statement. Fiction
preludes science. Everything we dream
about, and by that I mean everything
we desire, is true (the myth of Icarus
came before aviation, and if Ader or
Blériot started flying, it is because all
men have dreamt of flight). There is
nothing truer than myth: history, in its
attempt to ‘realise’ myth, distorts it,
stops half way; when history claims
to have ‘succeeded’, this is nothing but
humbug and mystification. Everything
we dream is ‘realisable’. Reality does
not have to be: it is simply what it is.
It is the dreamer, the thinker or the
scientist who is the revolutionary: it is
he who tries to change the world.”
from the French by Donald Watson.
London: John Calder, 1964, op. cit., p.14.
The creation
of the “magic box”
When Marie-Claude Pietragalla, Julien
Derouault, and Mehdi Tayoubi (vice-president
in charge of experiential strategy and the Passion
for Innovation program at Dassault Systèmes)
decided to collaborate to give substance to the
imaginary world of Eugène Ionesco, the whole
Passion for Innovation team got together to help
them visually translate the story that they had
written.
The graphic world of Gaël Perrin, independent
art director, served as the framework of their
creation; together, month after month, the three
of them invented and shaped the environment
in which the two characters, Mr & Mrs Dream,
would move about. A fantastical world was born,
made of magnificent bourgeois salons that vanish,
tranquil countryside where time moves faster,
and a cosmos where you can leap from asteroid
to asteroid.
The Passion for Innovation teams, coordinated by Benoît Marini, a specialist in immersive virtual reality and interactivity, took on the
challenge of creating a “magical box” in which
the virtual world would unfold and into which
Mr & Mrs Dream would be plunged. They set up
a 3D experience lab on the Pietragalla-Derouault
company’s premises in Bagnolet—a smaller-scale
replica of a real stage—where the projections of
images and their interactions with the dancers
were tested.
The “magic box” is the reproduction of a virtual
reality room traditionally used in the industrial
world for testing diverse scenarios before
taking them into the real world. The 3D world is
projected in real time by software that handles
the display on the four surfaces (three walls
and the ground), giving the impression that the
dancers are completely immersed in the virtual
world. The set design becomes a third character,
in symbiosis with the dancers. Six projectors are
needed to cover the 180m2 of the “box”.
The whole set can be taken apart so that it can
be adapted to fit each of the theatres on the tour,
every auditorium having a different configuration:
the rig, the screens, and the video-projectors can
be transported from one place to another and set
up in record time. A high-performance structure
to support the latest technology. However,
technology must also know how to disappear,
to become invisible in order to make way for
emotion…
Eugène Ionesco was born (as Eugen Ionescu)
in Romania in 1909, to a Romanian father and a
French mother. In 1911, the Ionesco family moved
to Paris, but in 1916 his father returned alone to
Bucharest. Eugene and his sister were then sent
to boarding school in La Chapelle-Anthenaise, in
the Mayenne, where he stayed until the age of
thirteen. He retained wonderful memories of his
time there.
He completed his secondary education in
Bucharest, then continued in higher education
there: a French degree, followed by teacher training. He published numerous articles in progressive and anti-fascist reviews, as well as essays
and a collection of poems.
In 1936, he married Rodica Burileanu, a student
of philosophy and law. In 1938, unable to tolerate
the climate created by the rise of fascism in
Romania, the couple left to live in Paris. When he
was called up in 1940, Ionesco had to return to
Romania, but he moved back to France in 1942,
and settled with his wife in Marseille. Their
daughter, Marie-France, was born in 1944.
After the war, Ionesco returned to Paris, where
he translated the Romanian poet Uzmuz, whom
he considered a precursor to the surrealists. To
earn a living, he worked as a warehouse man, then
a proofreader. He met up with Mircea Eliade, who
he had known from Bucharest, and made friends
with André Breton, Arthur Adamov, and Luis
Buñuel, among others.
In 1950, La Cantatrice chauve (The Bald Soprano),
his first play, was staged by Nicolas Bataille at
the Théâtre des Noctambules, where it met with
incomprehension from most critics. The same year,
Ionesco wrote La Leçon (The Lesson), Jacques ou
la soumission (Jack, or The Submission), and Les
Salutations, then the following year, Les Chaises
(The Chairs), Le Maître, Le Salon de l’automobile
(The Motor Show, a radio sketch), and L’avenir est
dans les oeufs (The Future is in Eggs). He was a
member of the School of Pataphysics, one of its
“transcendent satraps”, until around 1973.
Gallimard began publishing his plays in
1954. From 1952 to 1959, many were staged in
Parisian theatres, including The Chairs, Victimes
du devoir (Victims of Duty), Amédée ou comment s’en débarrasser (Amédée, or How to Get
Rid of It), Jacques ou la soumission, Le Tableau
(The Picture), L’Impromptu de l’Alma, L’avenir est
dans les oeufs, Le Nouveau Locataire (The New
Tenant), and Tueurs sans gages (The Killer). In
London, Ionesco’s plays provoked great debate,
led in particular by the critic Kenneth Tynan.
La Cantatrice chauve and La Leçon were reprised
in 1957 at the Théâtre de la Huchette with great
success; such success, indeed, that the two plays
have been performed there continuously ever since.
In 1960, Rhinocéros was staged by Jean-Louis
Barrault at the Théâtre de l’Odéon in Paris. The
play had been created the year before in Düsseldorf, where it received acclaim. It was also staged
in London in 1960, at the Royal Court Theatre, in
a production directed by Orson Welles. For more
than 50 years, Rhinocéros has been shown continuously around the world, in Europe, the United
States, and even Japan.
During the 1960s, Ionesco continued to write
for the theatre—Le Roi se meurt (Exit the King),
Le Piéton de l’air (A Stroll in the Air)—but he also
wrote for cinema and published short stories (La
Photo du colonel), a collection of articles and
lectures on the theatre (Notes et Contre-notes)
and autobiographical texts (Journal en miettes,
Présent passé, passé présent).
In 1970, Ionesco was elected to the Académie
française.
In 1973, he published his first novel: Le Solitaire
(The Hermit). From the 1970s, while he continued
to write plays (Jeux de massacre, Macbett, L’Homme
aux valises [Man With Bags], Ce formidable bordel
[A Hell of a Mess]), articles (Antidotes) and various
other texts, he also dedicated lots of time to
painting, and exhibitions of his work were held
in France, Switzerland, the United States, and
Germany. Fifteen lithographs were published in Le
Blanc et le Noir (Gallimard, 1985).
Throughout the 1970s and the 1980s, Ionesco
received many honours and awards: the Officier
de la Légion d’honneur, the Ingersoll Foundation’s
T.S. Eliot Award for creative writing in Chicago,
the Jerusalem Prize, and honorary doctorates from
many universities (Tel Aviv, Warwick, Katowice).
In 1989, he received a Molière d’honneur for lifetime achievement. The Bibliothèque de la Pléiade
published his complete theatrical works in 1991
Eugène Ionesco died in Paris on 28 March 1994 and
was buried in Montparnasse Cemetery. Today he is
recognized as one of the greatest French dramatists
of the twentieth century and as an author who
occupies a major place in world literature.
“I have been called a writer of
the absurd [. . .]. In reality, the
existence of the world seems to me
not absurd but unbelievable, yet
intrinsically, within the framework
of existence and the world, one can
see things clearly, discover laws
and establish ‘rational’ rules. The
incomprehensible appears to us only
when we return to the very springs
of existence; when we take up a
position in the sidelines and obtain
a total picture of it.”
from the French by Donald Watson. London:
John Calder, 1964, op. cit., pp.224–5.
When I was ten years old,
my room was set up like a disco,
with strobes, ambient lights,
multi-coloured spots, a disco ball,
a DJ console, and a dance floor.
When I turned on my machines,
hundreds of white stars swirled
in a cosmic ballet on the walls
of my room. The disco ball turned
every evening. I had only one desire:
to make people dance.”
Manchester and woken Paris from La Luna to the
Palace via the Rex Club. Precursor to French-style
techno from the late 1980s, he radiated the best
sound waves throughout the world, from raves
to warehouses, clubs to festivals. The Excess
Luggage box-set, five CDs of Garnier’s live mixes,
sums up well the frenzy of this globetrotting DJ,
an artist who keeps his ears wide open to world
sounds, current trends, and the sounds of the
young generation.
In early 2011, Garnier was the only Frenchman
among 35 DJs selected for a competition for the
best DJ of all time organised by the English magazine Mixmag. It was the ultimate recognition for
this turntable ace, who offers incredible mixes,
drawing on techno from Detroit and elsewhere,
jazz inspirations, disco, deep house, African
groove, and jungle and dubstep bass sounds.
This musical eclecticism is also at the heart of his
radio gigs.
In the early 1990s, Garnier got behind the
For 25 years, Laurent Garnier made the world
dance—swaying behind the turntables, jumping
about behind his machines, grooving in a radio
studio. A multifaceted artist whose sphere of
influence and resonance is inescapable, Laurent
Garnier is, above all, a DJ, a true DJ: moved by
music, excited by moving crowds, bodies in
trance, and free spirits.
A seeker of sounds with a huge breadth of
knowledge, he combs through record stores and
trawls the internet, listening tirelessly to all the
music he can get hold of. Music, the beat of the
world, is his holy grail.
A pioneering DJ of electronic nights, Garnier
has experienced the acid house euphoria of
microphone and began playing records on Radio
FG, on Maxximum and above all on Radio Nova,
where he was a regular for 18 years. A discoverer of rarities, a selector of previously unheard
sounds, and a trendsetter, the DJ found a source of
achievement in the medium of radio. To the extent
that, in 2003, he created Pedro’s Broadcasting
Basement (www.pedrobroadcast.com), his own
internet radio station, open night and day, available throughout the world. And as if that wasn’t
enough, Garnier also presents the weekly programme It is What It is, broadcast in France (Le
Mouv), Belgium (Pure FM), Switzerland (Couleur
3), and Mali (La Chaîne 2).
An insatiable and tireless artist, who is always
on the go, Garnier is bursting with passions and
projects. As well as DJing and radio broadcasts,
he is also becoming a renowned and sought-after
producer.
His first anthems (“Acid Eiffel”, “Wake Up”),
the sound track of the techno explosion in France,
were followed by full, long-format albums
of diverse influences and high-energy, from
the techno tremors of Shot In The Dark to the
generous aspirations of Tales of a Kleptomaniac,
via the electronic flights of 30, the maturity of
Unreasonable Behaviour, and the visionary escape
of The Cloud Making Machine. In five albums,
Laurent Garnier has traced a remarkable and
acclaimed career path, one full of unforgettable
electronic anthems, made popular as much by DJs
as by dancers (“Flashback”, “Crispy Bacon”, “The
Man With The Red Face”, “Back To My Roots”,
“Gnanmankoudji”, “It’s Just Muzik”).
The artist’s discography is inseparable from
F Communications, the label that he created in
1994 with Eric Morand, and which has showcased producers like Mr Ozio, St Germain, Jori
Hulkkonen, AlexKid, and Scan X.
In addition to his albums, Garnier has also
worked as a sound producer for film, television,
and theatre projects.
In 2007, he composed and mixed the whole
soundtrack for Marie-Claude Pietragalla and Julien
Derouault’s dance work Sade, or The Theatre
of Madmen. In 2010, he worked with Angelin
Preljocaj on the music of the ballet Suivront
mille ans de calme. His career, marked out by
striking, vibrant human and musical experiences
such as these, is characterized by commitment
and passion.
Garnier is responsible
for composing and mixing
the soundtrack
for Mr & Mrs Dream.
The dancers, the dramatist, and the engineer
A contemporary fable
Dancing
the Dreamworld
Mr & Mrs Dream is an immersion in the world of
dreams, a dive into the absurd and the bizarre, and
a mise en abyme of the act of creation, personified throughout the piece by a strange creature/
creator without a face.
Mr & Mrs Dream,
a “theatre of bodies”
All the key elements of a ballet—of any choreo-
graphic work—are assembled here. As has been the
case for more than 400 years, since the creation of
the first ballets in the 15th century in Italy, Mr &
Mrs Dream is based around a theme, a set design,
and a choreography and has costumes, scenery,
staging, technical resources, and a soundtrack,
which together serve a project whose general
and universal aim is to portray passions, to put
thoughts into movement. Indeed, all choreographic
works essentially fulfil a dual function, poetic and
aesthetic, recording and expressing feelings, transforming the real and explaining the world.
Dance is the epitome of the performing art:
whether traditional or contemporary, minimalist
or full of artifice, it says something to the spectator, who receives, as though by empathy, the
message born out of the internal experience of
the dancers and their interaction with other dramatic forms. The aim may change—it has changed
over the course of centuries and choreographies—but the process is the same: the dancing
body, brought into an encounter with energies,
the space it moves in, the music with which it
coordinates itself, the set design it inhabits, and
the light that transfigures it, becomes incarnate, translates, and speaks through its performance. This process rests on emotion, resonance:
it is through transport—in the emotional sense—
through mental acceptance, that a spectator gains
the key to understanding certain aspects of the
world and of human nature. However, for this
dialogue, this emotional experience to be established, spectators have to abandon the link that
anchors them in the real and allow their daily
lives to be enchanted by entering into the illusion of the performance. By leaving, through contemplation and aesthetic pleasure, the “self” to
become “the other”, the spectator is gripped by
a deeper reality, following the belief of ancient
philosophers that the contemplation of “the sensible” (what can be perceived by the senses) leads
to “the intelligible”, that is, understanding.
This dimension is at the heart of, and drives,
the “théâtre du corps”, the choreographic work
of Marie-Claude Pietragalla and Julien Derouault.
All the productions of the pair intrinsically bear
this mark and express dance’s most sensitive side,
conveying instinct, the imaginary, and dreams.
Dancing the bizarre and the dream
By choosing to draw inspiration from the works
and obsessions of Eugène Ionesco and to explore
new personal areas through his plays, writings,
and pictorial works, Pietragalla and Derouault discovered new avenues of exploration for their aesthetic and artistic projects.
Their similarities with the writer are numerous,
starting with a shared conception of art: “For me
art means the revelation of certain things that
reason, everyday habits of thought, conceal from
me. Art pierces everyday reality. It springs from
a different state of mind.”1
There’s the same analysis of the day-to-day,
its conformity and its automatic reflexes, a prison
that dehumanizes and disembodies those who
are stuck in it and from which there is no escape,
other than by breaking it apart with the prism of
the imagination: “We need to be virtually bludgeoned into detachment from our daily lives, our
habits and mental laziness, which conceal from us
the strangeness of the world. Without a fresh virginity of mind, without a new and healthy awareness of existential reality, there can be no theatre
and no art either; the real must be in a way dislocated, before it can be reintegrated.”2
There’s the same fascination in the expressive possibilities of performance (making things
“real”), whether through drama or dance. There’s
also the same attraction to light, the same awareness of the advantage of making space and geometries work, like “architecture, a moving structure of
scenic images”3, to understand the performance as
a total art form: “I have attempted, for example, to
exteriorise, by using objects, the anguish […] of my
characters, to make the set speak and the action on
the stage more visual […]”4. “But the theatre has its
own idiom: a language of words and gestures and
objects, action itself, for everything tends to expression and meaning.”5 In this sense, “everything
becomes presence, everything becomes character”.6
Having found numerous echoes of their work
in the works of Eugène Ionesco, Pietragalla and
Derouault took on the challenge of choreographing his world. “We have created our own lyrical, fantastical story from his state of mind and
his plays, which he defined as bizarre and not
absurd”.7 In veering it toward a dance performance, the choreographers avoided reducing this
world to a formal transcription, but rather let it
speak, have an effect, enabling some fundamental truths to emerge from it: “Ionesco’s theatre
has lots of links with movement, with moving,
with the accumulation of props and characters”
(Marie-Claude Pietragalla).
Indeed, Eugène Ionesco, constantly in search
of modes of expression capable of translating his
troubled inner thoughts, appreciated dance as a
scenic movement marked by dynamic, trans-historical, and liberating capacities. His “ballets of
objects”, his liking for accumulations, tangential
conversations, and the invasion of space, as well
as the “scalp dance” in The Lesson and the tango
in The Bald Soprano, are illustrations of this.
Built on the associative logic of an Ionescolike dream, Mr & Mrs Dream, a series of interwoven dreams, praises the imaginary and
transfigures the theatricality of movement in a
dizzying dance that is pervaded at each step by
the author’s questionings and ideas.
In turn, each of the two dancers takes on the role
of spokesperson for Ionesco’s aesthetics, conveying these fundamental principles through the
evolution of different scenes to recreate a free
world, situated at the crossroads between the real
and the imaginary.
On the other side of the real:
the virtual
Pietragalla and Derouault’s decision to innovate by confronting the distortions of Ionesco’s
aesthetic through choreographic vocabulary was
enriched by the expressive potential of image as
an element of the design, the choreography, and
the scenography. In their process of creation and
reflection on the choreography, they took into
account the new possibility of further opening
up movement and redesigning the scenic space. A
dialogue was established between the vocabulary
of movement and that of 3D.
The magic box, formed of grey screens on which
images are projected, defines the scenic space:
closed, encompassing and separated from ordinary
existence, as represented by the fixed apartment
of the prologue. In this world of anonymity, which
Eugène Ionesco described as the place where everyone is “the other” and no one is himself, another
space is being prepared, that of the dreamworld.
We are in the virtual, in the etymological sense of
“that which is becoming”, in the flow of energy of
the potential. Because the image comes alive, it
becomes a fantastic conveyor of theatricality.
The “dislocation of the real”, a preliminary to
the establishment of the Ionesco dreamworld,
is at work at the first sign of trouble: when the
storm arrives, the partition is torn down and the
books fall. By setting the closed space and beings
initially anchored in the real into motion, the virtual gives way to the dreamworld, to the virtual
unreality that constitutes and fills it. The dream
becomes tangible.
Mr & Mrs Dream: the place where
anything is possible
“The evanescence of the movement will con-
trast with cumbersome words, physical excess
will stand alongside existential void and the
unreal transparency of images will marry ceremoniously with the opacity of the human, of humour,
and of derision.”8
Conceived as a series of scenes, each one
opening up a new world to which the characters,
protagonists of their own lives, gravitate, Mr and
Mrs Dream immerses the audience in the danced
dream. Over the course of the changing images,
which the dancers adapt to, confront, or exploit,
the boundary between reality, virtuality, and
unreality blurs.
Because everything shifts in Mr & Mrs Dream.
As with the silvery mist of the looking glass
that Alice passes through in Lewis Carroll’s
Through The Looking Glass, the mise en abyme of
images arising from the dancers’ vision creates a
dizziness that arouses in the audience the surprising sensation of having been caught in a parallel
world of the senses.
The technology enhances the movement and
generates a visual intensity; the dance thus gains
in space. This swirling synergy leaving the dancing bodies and, after interferences, returning to
them, gives birth to an immersive and progressive world the presence and traces of which are
almost physical. The cohesion of the two modes
of expression are reciprocal: dance brings natural
sensitivity to the image, the image intensifies the
lyricism of the movement.
We are at the heart of 21st century live performance, in enhanced choreography, which doesn’t
settle for relating the dream, but gives it substance, and even prolongs it.
DANCE & image
New image technologies have appealed to
numerous contemporary choreographers, more so
than to theatre producers. They have incorporated
them into their creations, exploring the possible
interplay between movement and projected
images.
In Homemade, 1966, Trisha Brown simultaneously danced and projected the film of her choreography onto the walls, ceiling, and floor of the
theatre, using a projector attached to her back, in
synchronization with the “live” dance.1
The real pioneer in this area, however, was
Merce Cunningham. He began using video as stage
sets in the 1970s; in the 1990s, however, using
Life Forms—3D simulation and choreography
software—he was able to incorporate virtual
images into his dances. In Biped (1999), silhouettes
created using computer graphics and projected
onto a screen suspended in the foreground danced
alongside those on stage. These silhouettes had
been created by digital artists Paul Kaiser and
Shelley Eshkar before being made to move using
sensors placed on the dancers’ bodies, which
transmitted the required information to the
computer.2 Cunningham made good use of Life
Forms to breathe new life into his choreography
and to expand the range of movements at his
disposal. He was able to choreograph straight
from the software, using the body models it
produced to create random sequences and play
with accelerations, repetitions, and flashbacks.
The dancers would then learn these movements,
transforming them by incorporating them into
their performance. Going back and forth between
the real and the virtual made the choreography
exciting and original.
The use of images and virtual technology in
choreography continued to be explored during the
first decade of the new millennium. In 2008, in
Marco Polo, Marie-Claude Pietragalla and Julien
Derouault were the first to feature animation
images that echoed the characters portrayed
by the dancers and enhanced a choreography
that married contemporary dance, hip hop, and
martial arts.
Today, the virtual worlds of
Mr & Mrs Dream lend a new
dimension to this quest for
interaction between dance and
images. The sophistication of
the images and their visual
perfection plunge the audience
into a world where the boundaries
between real life and virtual life
are blurred. Furthermore, the
images simultaneously projected
onto three sides of the stage and
the floor mean that the dancers
are fully immersed in this newly
created virtual universe. This in
turn transforms the audience’s
perception of the performance
space. Most importantly, the
dancers genuinely interact with
the virtual scenery, which plays
the role of a third actor, alongside
Marie-Claude Pietragalla and
Julien Derouault. In so doing, the
technology and work of Dassault
Systèmes in no way competes
with the dance but rather
enhances it. Mr & Mrs Dream
is a groundbreaking performance
concept that opens up new
horizons for the stage.
Ionesco & fantasy
I have tried to write original plays and to
give them a poetic tone that is absent from
spoken language but present in the language
of images.4
Ionesco used his plays to explore the close,
consubstantial links between the imaginary and
reality. He tried to experience the nature of these
links. In this sense, he was a researcher and an
inventor.
“Reality is rooted in the unreal” 1
Eugène Ionesco
For anyone wishing to explore the ways in
which the imaginary might be made real, Eugène
Ionesco’s plays are of compelling interest. Ionesco
used dreams as a constant source of inspiration,
producing plays devoted largely to his wonderment
at the absurdity of the world, the disordered state
of language and events, and metaphysical anxieties.
I attach considerable importance to dreams,
because they enable me to gain a clearer and
deeper understanding of myself. Dreaming
is thinking; thinking in a far deeper, more
realistic, and more authentic way […]. Dreams
[…] are thoughts in pictures. […] This much
is clear. […] Basically, I believe that a dream
is both a lucid thought—more lucid than
thoughts produced during wakefulness—and
a thought in pictures, and that it is already
a piece of theatre; that it is always a drama
because we’re always “beings in situation”.2
Logic is the surface of consciousness.
A dream is a state of heightened, substantial
awareness.3
Imagining is all about building, making,
creating a world. By creating worlds, we can
“re-create” the world to reflect invented,
imaginary worlds. Instead of restoring the
world, we can “make” our own.5
“If theatre or any other system of expression
helps us to gain an awareness of reality, it
is because the reality of the imaginary is
more significant and more prevalent than the
reality of everyday life.6
Staging the imaginary
Certain dreamlike, surreal scenes presented
staging problems. In his conversations with the
critic Claude Bonnefoy, Ionesco explained why
some producers were reluctant to accurately
represent a world that seemed absurd and illogical
by the strict criteria of rationality. But this form
of reconstruction also, quite simply, posed various
technical issues.
Take those of Amédée, or How to Get Rid of It
and a continuously growing corpse invading the
space, or the dilemma of how to make a character
fly, as in Amédée and A Stroll in the Air. It is the
nature of theatrical art to make something nonexistent appear in front of the audience, while the
actor, in his performance, can personify fantasy.
But in this case, Ionesco wanted to bring to life
as accurately as possible the dream situations he
had transcribed. Because he did not have virtual
simulation technologies at the time, he used
the available theatrical machinery to bring his
imagination to life.
C.B.: Let’s go back to the subject of nonrealism. What would you say is the best way
of conveying the weird and wonderful on
stage? Through the acting of the actors [...]?
Or by using a gadget or machinery, as you
did with Barrault in A Stroll in the Air?
E.I.: I’ve been criticised a lot for using
machinery. Why wouldn’t you use theatrical
machinery? […] Even though it’s artistically
easier to use, machinery is fun, and I don’t
see why you shouldn’t use it. […]
C.B.: Your plays are essentially inspired by
dreams. This inspiration involves images,
some of which can be extremely complex and
very spectacular. In order to transpose them
to the stage and make them accessible to the
audience, is it not sometimes necessary to
use machinery?
E.I.: Sometimes machinery is useful, some
times it’s vital. Sometimes it’s not needed
at all. When you draw on these technical
methods, [...] it’s more for fantasy and
humour-based productions.7
Among Ionesco’s recurring themes is the
proliferation of words and objects, which is actually more nightmarish than dreamlike. In The
Chairs, dozens of chairs crowd the stage for invisible guests; pieces of furniture accumulate, too,
in The New Tenant; while Rhinoceros sees the
population of these horned animals multiply in
an alarming manner. Different adaptations of The
Chairs have been faced with a feasibility problem
as regards the dimensions of the stage.
Science & Imagination
“Imagination is more important
than knowledge”
Albert Einstein
Our industrial society views scientific research
and artistic creation as belonging to two distinct—
even irreconcilable—disciplines. In one we have
knowledge, technology, objectivity, and rationality; in the other imagination, dreams, subjectivity,
and fantasy. However, a growing body of scientists and artists claims that this vision is not only
false but also counterproductive. They believe
that combining these spheres boosts both innovation and creativity. Science and technology, art
and imagination can all be enriched by interacting
with other.
We need only to step sideways in time or
space to appreciate that these limitations are
very recent and particular to the western world.
Neither can the corollary of these limitations—
the West’s tendency to ignore the relationship
between the body and the mind—be considered
universal.
Bangalore, India, has become a centre for
research into new technologies where body and
soul, science and cosmogony, mathematics and
poetry have always been compatible concepts.
The Shulba Sutra, India’s earliest extant mathematical text, is as much a literary work as a
scientific thesis. According to Indian tradition,
mathematicians were required to respect the
“mother of all sciences”, the Sanskrit grammar,
and some mathematical proofs are composed in
verse to make them easier to remember.1
Western history, too, has numerous examples
that show that separation between art and
science, or between “hard” and “soft” sciences,
has not always been a matter of course. Ancient
Greece’s great scientists and mathematicians,
Pythagoras, Zeno of Elea, and Eratosthenes, were
also philosophers. Piero della Francesca, Leonardo
de Vinci, and Albrecht Dürer were both scientists
and painters; Jean-Philippe Rameau spent his
life working on the relationship between music
and mathematical principles; Lewis Carroll
shone as brightly in the literary world as he did
in the mathematics arena; and French polymath
Boris Vian was an engineer and inventor before
becoming a jazz musician and poet.
The physician and science critic Jean-Marc
Lévy-Leblond explains how interactions between
art and science can be beneficial: “The example
of Galileo perfectly illustrates how science arose
from culture, that it is a component of culture.
Galileo was a great scientist, not least because he
had an excellent understanding of mathematics
and was a confident experimenter. But it was
also and simultaneously because his cultural
background enabled him to carry out his scientific
work. When he turned his telescope skyward,
what allowed him to detect the moon’s relief,
Jupiter’s satellites, and the stars making up the
Milky Way was the fact that what he saw was
shaped by his familiarity with the pictorial world
of Italy and that his eye had been trained through
his work as an artist. […] [His moon watercolours
perfectly capture the relief of the craters.] It was
because Galileo was able to portray the relief that
he was in a position to see it!”2 The current separation between science and
culture is seen by many as detrimental to society: “In its modern-day form, science arose, a few
centuries ago, through the cross-fertilization of
culture and technology. As culture and technology
developed autonomously, along with their points
of view, scientific activity distanced itself from
art and eventually abandoned its cultural dimensions to increasingly subordinate itself to the
technological advances that it had made possible.
[…] Unless science adopts a position in a wider
cultural matrix, unless we scientists, technicians,
and engineers develop a better understanding of
our sciences’ history, philosophy, sociology, and
economy, we risk finding ourselves on the list of
endangered species.”3
Among the current initiatives to forge links
between scientific research, industrial innovation,
and the imagination, the teaching and research
chair “Modélisations des imaginaires, innovation
et creation” (Modelling of Imagination: Innovation
and Creation) makes a stimulating contribution.
Created in 2010 from a partnership between
academic and industrial institutions, it views
imagination as a “raw material” for scientific and
industrial innovation. The idea is to try to decode and model the imaginations expressed in
representations, myths, and collective or individual
fictions, and to understand their implications in the
processes of creation and invention.
Interview with Pierre Musso,
director of the “Modelling of imaginations:
innovation and creation”
How would you define the notion
of imagination?
Imagination is a language made up of
stories and pictures. It has its own identity,
logic, and momentum. Imagination is not
the opposite of rationality and reality,
merely its other facet.
What is the importance of imagination
for scientists and engineers?
History over the last two centuries has
shown that imagination has always played
an active role in industrial developments.
If aeroplanes were built, it was because
humans had always dreamed of flying; this
invention took its inspiration from the myth
of Icarus.
Moreover, the science philosopher Gaston
Bachelard has underlined the importance of
emotions and representations in scientists’
mental spheres, and how they either
hamper or stimulate discoveries.
Today, computerization is a major technological development that affects the brain’s
organization. The raw material of industry,
and particularly of IT-related technologies,
is now the human brain. We talk about
“brain power” like we used to talk about
“man power”, which involves boosting
rational skills, intuition, and imagination.
In what way does the imagination
play a role in scientific innovation?
To exist, technology requires not just instrumentality and social representations but
also roles and stories; it is what anthropologist Georges Balandier calls “technoimaginaire”. Industries that operate in line
with concepts, dreams, imagination, and
symbolism are of particular strategic importance. If we consider industries related to
video gaming, virtual worlds, or 3D simulations, the imagination constitutes a genuine
raw material.
Generally speaking, imagination is present
at each and every stage of an innovation
process. At the outset of any invention is
intuition, which is rooted in representations,
myths, and stories. The work of researchers
and engineers involves not only rational
reasoning but also imagination, sensory
perception, and emotions. Implementing
and disseminating an invention also calls
for shared representations, placing it in a
collective history, in both senses of the word.
However, these mechanisms remain
largely unexplored. It is important to delve
deeper and exploit scientists’ creative and
imaginative abilities, in close conjunction
with stories, dreams, and intuition.
Could collaborating with artists
be of interest to businesses that develop
innovative digital technologies?
Engineering for cultural projects is at a
crossroads where technologies, skills, and
talents from different disciplines meet. These
produce innovation. Artists can use the
tools developed by manufacturers. In return
they generate fresh demands and new challenges, and question and stimulate research
and development teams. As the philosopher
St Simon wrote, progress can occur only
when a relationship exists between artists,
manufacturers, and scientists.
By the 1950s, Walt Disney had understood
that an entire industry could be founded on
the imaginary: imagineering (a hybrid of
imaginary and engineering) is about using
Disneyland to make the imaginary worlds
created by Disney into reality, particularly
theme parks.
illusion & theatre
Without losing its archaic roots, the theatre
has continued to invent new ways to captivate—
in the sense that it delights as well as enchants—
its audience, using narrative, voice, gesture, and
movement, as well as costumes, props, lighting, and sets. At certain times during theatre’s
long history, the combination of technological advances and the evolution of the expectations and desires of the audience has enabled the
considerable potential of the stage to be fully
exploited.
Perspective
and special effects
From the 16th century in Italy and the 17th
The art of illusion from the 17th
to the 21st century
The theatre is a strange and fascinating place,
where reality meets the spectacular. We are
transported to the other side of a mirror, where
limits have been altered, where the stories and
images presented to us are based on illusion, on
“pretence”, and yet they help us get closer to a
profound truth. We choose to believe what we are
being told and from this comes all the wonder of
theatre, producing a world of endless possibilities.
century in France, the principle of “pièces à
machines” (machine plays) was developed, using
extremely complex systems, with special effects
that astounded and dazzled the audience. The
stage became a true creator of illusion. During
plays on mythological themes, fashionable in
the 17th century, French audiences could watch
Mercury descend from Olympus to interact with
the mortals (Les Deux Sosies by Jean Rotrou),
Pluto rise from Hell or Medea fly in a chariot drawn
by two dragons (Medea by Pierre Corneille).1
The sets became crucial to the success of a
performance: designed section by section, they
created a layered effect, a sense of perspective,
enhanced by lighting. Until the 19th century, the
weakness of the light provided by candles and
then oil lamps was a constraint to which the staging had to adapt, but it could also be used as an
advantage. “All one needs to do is set the stage
with panels, with lights installed on the back,
spaced a maximum of two metres apart, a distance
that corresponds to the range of an oil lamp. This
is what is called a set design. The foreground thus
lights up the second section that will light up the
third... and so on until the backdrop.” 2
In the 17th century, French theatre sets were
designed by specialists, some of whom came from
Italy, such as the painter Giacomo Torelli, nicknamed the “great wizard” or “great magician”,
and Vigarani Carlo, “Intendant des Machines et
Menus Plaisirs du Roy” (steward of machines
and the king’s minor pleasures) under Louis XIV.
These sets were extremely stylized, each more
magnificent than the next: lavish palace interiors,
delightful country scenes, frightening reconstructions of Hell... They were painted on canvases
of varying sizes (the backdrop, the largest, took
up the entire width of the stage) stretched over
wooden frames.
Each play had several sets, and because the
curtain wasn’t lowered during the course of the
show, changes were made in full view of the
audience: the sets could be dragged into the
wings using a rail system or folded upward. This
“changement à vue” (transformation scene) was
part of the magic of the show.
In addition to the spectacular “flights” of the
characters, made possible by ropes and hidden
winches in the flies, the theatre machinists
invented numerous special effects. In 1638, the
Italian Nicola Sabbattini wrote one of the first
works on scenography, which elaborated the
possibilities offered by theatre machines. He
explains, for example, how one could make the
whole stage appear to be in flames, with the
help of canvases soaked in an inflammable material fixed to the front of the set. To represent the
sea, several machinists lined up in rows turned
handles attached to long wooden sculpted cylinders covered in azure and black fabric. The crest of
the “waves” was sprinkled with silver sequins to
create the foam.3
Everything happens
in the wings
The “illusion factory” relied on multiple devices
placed all over the stage. What was known as the
“stage-house” was in fact composed of “three
distinct areas, from top to bottom as follows:
the understage, the stage and the flies”.4 These
areas below and above the stage needed to be at
least as big as the stage itself, because storing
and moving scenery, as well as operating special
effects, required a good deal of space.
A lot of space was also needed in the wings, to
either side of the stage. At the end of the 19th
century, when he was building the Opéra that
would be named after him, Charles Garnier noted
that “the side clearance has to be as large as possible to house the actors, singers, walkers-on and
a host of props”.5 He thus provided ample “compartments” to store the props and frames for the
scenic flats. The workshops where the props were
painted, the frames were made, and other carpentry elements were stored also took up a huge
amount of room.
illusion & theatre
The “pièces à machines” did, however, gener-
ate some criticism: machinery was accused of
taking precedence over the story and plot. But
while it had its critics, this type of show also
had ardent supporters, including La Bruyère:
“We deceive ourselves and acquire a bad taste
when we state, as has been done, that machinery is only an amusement fit for children and suitable for puppet-shows. Machines increase and
embellish poetical fiction and maintain among
the spectators that gentle illusion in which the
entire pleasure of a theatre consists, to which it
also adds a feeling of wonder. There is no need
of flights, or cars, or changes when Bérénice or
Pénélope are represented,7 but they are necessary
in an opera, as the characteristic of such a spectacle is to enchant the mind as well as the ear and
the eye.”8
Developing tastes, developing
technology
This contrast between the means employed, the
energy exerted, and the magic of the result led La
Bruyère to exclaim: “If you were to go behind the
scenes, and count the weights, the wheels, the
ropes used for the effects; if you were to consider
how many men are employed in executing these
movements, and how they ply their arms and
strain their nerves, you would ask if these are the
prime motors and mainsprings of so handsome
and natural a spectacle, which seems so full of life
and to work by itself, […].”6
Although stage machinery was designed for
the theatre it also served dance; indeed, theatre, opera, and dance were not really distinct from
each other in the 17th century, as can be seen in
the operas-ballets performed at Versailles. In the
second half of the 18th century, Jean-Georges
Noverre, in his Lettres sur la danse et sur les
ballets, advocated “the emergence of the choreographer as a creative artist in his own right.”9 and
invented a new form of ballet, “ballet d’action”,
which linked dance and mime. Machinery was still
in use there. Indeed, a perfect knowledge of how
the machines worked and the possibilities they
offered was considered by Noverre to be one of
the characteristics of good choreographer.
“Machinery theatre”, and in particular the
use of counterbalance systems, was perfected
during the 18th century and especially during
the 19th century. Technology was changing, but
more importantly, the public’s expectations had
changed, and with them the scenography; in the
theatre and Romantic ballet, the emphasis was on
the expression of feelings and the veracity of the
characters’ psychology. The supernatural world
no longer took the same forms as two centuries
previously, but it was still present: for example,
in La Sylphide, a ballet created for the Opéra de
Paris in 1832, the heroine “is carried to heaven by
a graceful group of sylphs”.10
Special effects became more and more realistic, and with transformation scenes falling out of
fashion (the curtain was now lowered between
each act) the use of monumental and sumptuous
sets became possible. The arrangement of sets
and lighting was nevertheless still dangerous: in
1862, during a rehearsal for La Muette de Portici
(The Mute Girl of Portici) by Daniel Auber, the
skirt of dancer Emma Livry touched a naked gas
flame and caught fire; she died after eight months
of agony.11 The arrival of electricity bought with
it a clear improvement in this regard. Inventions
that appeared were immediately put into use on
stage: in 1890, in Ascanio, an opera by Camille
Saint-Saëns, one of the characters held a torch
that was in fact a “portable accumulator lamp”—
in other words, battery operated.12
In designing, with the Dassault Systèmes teams,
a virtual set in 3D to stage Eugène Ionesco’s
world, the creators of Mr & Mrs Dream, MarieClaude Pietragalla and Julien Derouault, have
made a bold but coherent link between centuries-old techniques and the most up-to-date digital technology. Ultimately, this approach seems
natural for artists who have placed their choreographic work in a contemporary context that is
nevertheless rooted in classical tradition.
Meanwhile, the engineers and artists at Dassault
Systèmes who have created the “magic box” and
virtual set designs for Mr & Mrs Dream are following in the tradition of the machinists of Baroque
theatre, and they, too, are placing technology at
the service of art.
Like their Baroque counterparts, they oper-
ate in the cube-shaped space formed by the stage
area, and use fabric stretched over frames to
create layered scenes—except that the images are
not painted but projected by six projectors placed
on the floor and three placed at the sides of the
stage. Most importantly, the dancers do not dance
in front of a set, no matter how remarkable, but
interact with it, which introduces an additional
dimension to the very notion of choreography.
The system is simplified, because the thou-
sands of square metres of set that once had to be
constructed are now digitized. As for the “transformation scenes”, they become, of course, much
more efficient, because they are in real time.
However, while the “machinery” is not at all the
same and the teams for handling it are much
smaller, the effort used to produce quality performances remains comparable. And there is no
question that this magic can be born only from
a combination of inspiration, talent, and lots of
hard work…
notes
Dancing the Dreamworld
1. E. Ionesco, Notes and Counter-notes, translated
from the French by Donald Watson. London:
John Calder, 1964, p. 134.
2. Ibid., p. 25.
3. Ibid., p. 27–8.
4. Ibid., p. 108.
5. Ibid., p. 142.
6. Ibid., Conclusion.
7. M.-C. Pietragalla and J. Derouault, in É. Bulliard,
“Pietragalla, quand la technologie 3D se met au
service du rêve”, La Gruyère, 24 January 2013.
8. J. Derouault, Statement of intent for Mr & Mrs
Dream.
Dance & Image
1. Danser sa vie, exhibition catalogue, Centre
Pompidou, 2011, p. 213.
2. P. Noisette, Talk about Contemporary Dance,
translated by Deke Dusinberre from Danse
contemporaine: mode d’emploi (2010), Paris:
Flammarion, 2011, p. 104.
Ionesco & Fantasy
1. E. Ionesco, op. cit., p. 160.
2. E. Ionesco, Entre la vie et le rêve, Entretiens
avec Claude Bonnefoy, Gallimard, 1996
(1st ed. 1977), p. 12.
3. Ibid., p. 81.
4. Ibid., p. 196.
5. Ibid., p. 96.
6. Ibid., p. 168.
7. Ibid., p. 105–6.
1. J. Petit and S. Senoussi, Le Grand Livre des sciences
et inventions indiennes, Bayard, 2009, p. 38–41.
2. J.-M. Lévy-Leblond, Le Grand Écart, La science entre
technique et culture, Manucius, 2012, p. 33–5.
3. Ibid., p. 48–9.
Ilusion & Theatre
1. C. Delmas, Mythologie et mythe dans le théâtre
français (1650-1676), Droz, 1985.
2. J.-P. Gousset, “La Renaissance du théâtre
à machines”, publication of the Opéra royal
de Versailles and CMBV, 2012.
3. N. Sabbattini, Pratica di fabricar scene e macchine
ne’ teatri, 1637-1638.
4. R. Campos et A. Poidevin, La Scène lyrique autour
de 1900, L’œil d’or, 2012.
5. C. Garnier, quoted by R. Campos and A. Poidevin,
op. cit.
6. J. de La Bruyère, Characters, translated by Henri
van Laun. Introduction by Denys C. Potts. London:
Oxford University Press, 1963, chapter I, ‘Of Works
of the Mind’, section 47, p. 12.
7. Allusion to plays by Corneille, Racine, and Abbé
Genest performed during the period in which the
text was written.
8. J. de La Bruyère, op. cit., chapter VI, ‘Of the Gifts
of Fortune’, section 25, p. 89.
9. I. Guest, The Paris Opéra Ballet. Alton, Hampshire:
Dance Books, 2006, p. 23.
10. M.-F. Christout, “La Féerie romantique au théâtre
: de La Sylphide (1832) à La Biche au bois (1845),
chorégraphies, décors, trucs et machines”, in
Romantisme, 1982, No. 38.
11. I. Guest, ibid., p. 56.
12. “La Science au théâtre. Flambeau électrique
d’Ascanio à l’Opéra de Paris” in La Nature, Revue
des sciences et de leurs applications aux arts et à
l’industrie, Masson, 1st semester 1890.
Mehdi Tayoubi is vice-president in charge of
experiential and digital strategy at Dassault Systèmes.
He also deals with strategic innovation partnerships
(Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Harvard University,
EuropaCorp, etc.), as well as the Passion for Innovation
programme and its associated Lab.
This Lab, strengthened by a multi-disciplinary team,
seeks to push the limits of 3D immersive technology
and to promote new uses for it. Mehdi Tayoubi has
achieved innovative virtual 3D experiences by relying
on the excellent technology of Dassault Systèmes, used
as a scientific tool and an interactive medium. His desire
is to bring together people from different spheres—from
the worlds of education, culture, research, and business—and to impact diverse audiences via his projects.
Gaël Perrin was born in 1974 in Strasbourg, to parents
who were both painters and art teachers. He spent his
first 15 years in the Lorraine region and finished his
studies in 1996, graduating with a diploma in technical drawing at the age of 22. Since then, he has been
a multitalented artist. Working freelance in Paris and
New York, he works with all the visual tools linked
to communication. He designs and creates paintings,
illustrations, photographs, films, video-clips, 3D animations, web sites, events, and communication tools.
Gaël Perrin has been working with Dassault Systèmes
for 12 years. He designed and created the entire visual
and graphic world of Mr & Mrs Dream, as well as some
of the costumes.
Benoît Marini was born in 1976 in Rueil-Malmaison.
He is an engineer with a degree from top French
engineering school, Arts et Métiers. He joined the
digital and experiential strategy department of
Dassault Systèmes in 1999 and for several years has
managed the Experience Lab at the heart of the Passion
for Innovation team. He has supervised the creation
of numerous interactive 3D experiences: interaction in
real time with digital characters, motion capture in real
time, augmented reality and virtual reality experiences
in immersive environments, etc.
All photographs of Marie-Claude Pietragalla and
Julien Derouault and of Mr & Mrs Dream are by
Pascal Elliott, with the exception of “The Seasons”
(p.16), which is by Rémy Dish.
Illusion & Theatre
Le Temple de Minerve, set design by Alessandro
Sanquirico for the Milan Theatre, 19th century,
© Bibliothèque nationale de France
The photographs of the project by Dassault
Systèmes (pp.57–63 and p.73) are © DS,
with the exception of the following:
“Premier corridor de service”, in G. Moynet,
La Machinerie théâtrale, trucs et décors,
Librairie illustrée, 1893. Droits reservés
The immersive experience in front of the Hôtel
de Ville de Paris (p.56): © L’œil du Diaph.
The cover for La Douce by François Schuiten
(p.59 top right): © Éditions Casterman.
“Équipe d’un rideau sur un tambour du gril”,
in G. Moynet, op. cit. Droits reservés
Captions and credits for other photographs
Portrait of Eugène Ionesco
© Boris Lipnitzki / Roger-Viollet
Dance & Image
Marie-Claude Pietragalla in Marco Polo, 2008.
© Pascal Elliott
Ionesco & Fantasy
Lucien Raimbourg in Amédée ou comment s’en
débarrasser by Eugène Ionesco, Paris, Théâtre de
Babylone, 1954. © Studio Lipnitzki / Roger-Viollet
Yvonne Clech and Jean-Marie Serreau in Amédée
ou comment s’en débarrasser by Eugène Ionesco,
staged by Jean-Marie Serreau, Paris, Théâtre de
l’Odéon, 1961. © Studio Lipnitzki / Roger-Viollet
Tsilla Chelton and Jacques Mauclair in Les Chaises
by Eugène Ionesco, staged by Jacques Mauclair,
Paris, Studio des Champs-Élysées, 1956. © Studio
Lipnitzki / Roger-Viollet
“Plantation d’un décor “ and “Vue cavalière d’une
plantation”, in G. Moynet, op. cit. Droits reservés
Sketches for the “magic box” of Mr & Mme Dream.
© Gaël Perrin
The texts of “Scene by scene”, the biographies
of Marie-Claude Pietragalla and Julien Derouault,
and the presentation of the Théâtre du corps are
by Marie-Claude Pietragalla and Julien Derouault.
The biography of Eugène Ionesco is based
on biographies published in E. Ionesco, Jacques
ou la soumission, ed. M.-C. Hubert, op. cit.,
p.113–20, and E. Ionesco, Entre la vie et le rêve,
Entretiens avec Claude Bonnefoy, op. cit.,
p.211–12, as well as the site www.ionesco.org.
All quotations from Ionesco’s books
are © Éditions Gallimard.
The biography of Laurent Garnier is by Olivier
Pernot.
The texts of “Everything we dream is possible”,
“Dassault Systèmes, The 3DExperience Company”,
“Dance & Image”, “Ionesco & Fantasy”, “Science
& Imagination” and “Illusion & Theatre” are
by Béatrice Gamba.
Leonardo de Vinci, “Dessin de machine volante”,
The text of “Dancing the Dreamworld”
early 16th century, Paris, Bibliothèque de l’Institut. is by Fanny Pawyza.
© Photo Josse/Leemage
Editorial project management: Béatrice Gamba
Graphic design: Gaël Perrin
Translation: Anna McDowall
Typesetting: Thierry Renard
Printing: ADM-Print
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DANCE AND VIRTUAL UNREALITY IN MOTION

Transcription

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