Boris Charmatz: Choreographic Freeze at Avignon 2011

Boris Charmatz, 37, is the associate artist of the 2011 Avignon Festival. Since 2009, he has directed the National Choreographic Center of Rennes and Brittany, which he renamed "Musée de la danse" as a conceptual space. He coined "gel chorégraphique" (choreographic freeze) to describe the 1990s dance generation that positioned itself against the previous generation of Régine Chopinot, Karine Saporta, and Dominique Bagouet. Charmatz's early work À bras le corps (1993) with Dimitri Chamblas featured exhausting falls and juvenile explosions in a square of chairs, emphasizing proximity to the audience. His 1999 piece Con forts Fleuve involved blindfolded dancers with pants tied over their faces, a third of seats condemned, and pornographic poems by John Giorno. Charmatz cites childhood summers in Berlin, where his mother whispered translations of Klaus Michael Grüber's staging of Chekhov. His 2011 Avignon creation Enfant features nine dancers, twenty-seven children, and machines in the Cour d'honneur of the Palais des papes, referencing Jean-Claude Gallotta's 1983 piece Les Survivants (acte III) with naked children. Charmatz also presents Levée des Conflits on July 16-18.