Time and again, Jean-Claude Gallotta’s dance explores themes that insulate it from the present moment. That is because the very bodies of the performers demand acceptance of the here and now. Such themes include mythologies, repertory and tributes. More recently, Jean-Claude Gallotta created a dialogue between his dance and the great figures of the century. This is evident in his rock triptych (My Rock, My Ladies Rock, The Man With the Cabbage Head) and his dance diptychs with literature (The Stranger, Bonjour Tristesse). Now he has decided to return to the choreographic form of his early career : dance without a libretto, without any specific
intention, unencumbered by narrative, without thematic references.
With Day Dreamers, Jean-Claude Gallotta returns to Manhattan, hanging out in Bethune Street, where in the early 80s his aspirations as a budding choreographer were reflected in the large windows of the Merce Cunningham Studio. An opportunity to reexamine his sources : in particular his one key source : abstraction, an abstraction however that does not dispense with the flesh of dance. Béjart once said : « two shoulders or two thighs, you can grab hold of them, you can bite into them ». With Jean-Claude Gallotta there is always some meaning, a hint of narrative, a dash of figuration, a dab of irony or fun that disrupts the rhythmic design of the scene.
These fleeting moments – that he allows to happen, or that he does not disallow, or that he even provokes – traverse Day Dreamers. Therein lies one of the originalities of Jean-Claude Gallotta’s work, the origin of a movement of which he may be the sole representative : “playful abstraction”.
Like the practice of Cunningham, Cage and Rauschenberg forming an exchange, Jean-Claude Gallotta extends a similar invitation to the musician, Rodolphe Burger. Burger is an explorer of new sound scapes, mixing rock and philosophy. He visits Beckett and Johnny Cash, Büchner and Lou Reed, and in so doing achieves an alchemy of elitism and populism. Galotta has also invited the gifted, many-sided artist, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, to join the project. She is an explorer of connections between the arts, with a special predilection for ambiguity. She will design the costumes and lighting for the dancers “to shed light on the conscience of the present moment”.
Day Dreamers consists of three « events », each lasting 20 minutes. Between these events are two solos by the choreographer. The performance intends to create a choreography of “the present without impatience”. Its intensity derives from the unfettered experience of the moment, from sound and image. Will “playful abstraction” emerge anew, or once again ? How will it be received by a contemporary audience ? Neither the performers, the musician, the costume and lighting designer, or the choreographer can say. They are all deeply focused on creating their own space in the same time and place – the performance space – each his own space, like the void on the first day of the world before all creation. C.-H.B.