Seven Rhinoceroses’s skins
Choregraphy
Josef Nadj
Performers
Gérard Gourdot, Laszlo Hudi, Marie-Hélène Mortureux, Josef Nadj, Kathleen Reynolds, Laszlo Rokas, Joszef Sarvari, Silvia Sella, Gyork Szakonyi
Music
Hélène Sage with the participation of Laloux (percussions)
Additionnal musics
Arvo Part & Ganelin
Lights
Pierre Jacot-Descombes
Set & costumes
Goury
assisted by Jean-Yves Bouchicot (set)
and by Marie-Christine Merzereau (costumes)
Technical direction
Benoit Madelon
Light operator
Raymond Blot
Stage manager
Jean-Claude André
Production
Théâtre JEL
Coproduction
Théâtre de la Ville – Paris, Centro di Produzione Inteatro – Polverigi
Preview showing
Festival de Polverigi (Italie) – juillet 1988, with the support of A.F.A.A
Creation
Carré Saint-Vincent – Orléans, 24 novembre 1988
Danse macabre
“I, myself, am war”
Georges Bataille
“Nothing is more important than to preserve the fragility that is born out of suffering. We have all been maimed; our sensitivity itself has become one of the illness’ manifestations. The word for this illness is allergy. An allergy identifies itself with an organ, or with the whole of an organism, and introduces itself in the skin or in a pathologically hypersensitive nervous system. Something there takes it to be the substance of normal life, and it collapses within us. One can only choose between the skin of the rhinoceros and the allergy.”
Bela Hamvas
Fear of death, and death itself, is the knowledge most widely shared between men. In this sense, confrontation with the invincible power of death becomes a spiritual act, it constitutes our initiation. I myself received it from the tales of my grandfather, and from his own death; from the basic, stunned fear he had during the war of meeting his end there and then, just like that.
Just before his death, he danced his passage to the afterlife for me. It was a dance of pale, discolored trances, a farce on the earthly qualities of men as well as the ritual of a decaying body. He must have wanted, surely, to make his coming death seem lighter thus. For me, this dance came to be a learning process, the transmission of his supreme knowledge.
His death was terrible. His passing took place in a state of great agitation and turbulence, and his agony took 7 days. He was losing his voice, and his voice continued to tell stories. I couldn’t bear hearing them any more, those stories he needed to get rid of, but I understood them, because every day I slid into that pathological fragility he was engulfed in by tearing away skin after skin of indifference.
The agony took 7 days. The play recounts these stories.
Josef Nadj
History :
4 février 1992
Ville de Caen
Caen (FR)
26-27 novembre 1991
Théâtre Garonne
Toulouse (FR)
21 novembre 1991
Centre culturel de Foix
Foix (FR)
19 novembre 1991
Centre culturel Ibos
Ibos (FR)
26-27 septembre 1991
Festival international de Nouvelle Danse
Montréal (CND)
12 février 1991
L’Hippodrome
Douai (FR)
12-13 août 1990
Hamburger Theaterfestival
Hambourg (DE)
18 mai 1990
Centre d’animation culturelle
Compiègne (FR)
11 mai 1990
Théâtre Limelight
Courtrai (BE)
4 mai 1990
Théâtre 71
Malakoff (FR)
27-28 avril 1990
Le Maillon
Strasbourg (FR)
4-7 avril 1990
Istituto Municipal Barcelona Espectaculos
Barcelone (ES)
23 mars 1990
Maison des Arts et Loisirs
Thonon-les-Bains (FR)
13 mars 1990
L’Espace Duchamp Villon
Rouen (FR)
10 mars 1990
Palais des Congrès et de la Culture
Le Mans (FR)
8 mars 1990
Centre socio-culturel de Beaulieu
Poitiers (FR)
6 mars 1990
Centre d’Action culturelle
Saint-Médard-en-Jalles (FR)
6 mars 1990
Le Moulin du Roc
Niort (FR)
1er mars 1990
Théâtre d’Angoulême
Angoulême (FR)
8-26 février 1990
The Festival of Perth
Perth (AUS)
3 février 1990
Centre culturel Leonard de Vinci
Feyzin (FR)
1er février 1990
Espace Malraux
Chambéry (FR)
26 janvier 1990
Centre culturel du Rallye Drouot
Mulhouse (FR)
24 janvier 1990
Grand Théâtre de Bourges
Bourges (FR)
20 janvier 1990
Centre d’Actions culturelles La Coupole
Combs-la-Ville (FR)
16 janvier 1990
Théâtre la Limousine
Limoges (FR)
11 janvier 1990
Théâtre Municipal
Saint-Quentin (FR)
4 août 1989
7e Festival international du Mime
Périgueux (FR)
8-10 juin 1989
The Israel Festival
Jerusalem (IS)
7 mai 1989
Festival internacional de Teatro
Grenade (ES)
20 avril 1989
Festival Springdance 89
Utrecht (NL)
11-12 avril 1989
Maison de la Danse
Lyon (FR)
3 février 1989
Les Gémeaux
Sceaux (FR)
26-29 janvier 1989
De Singel
Anvers (BE)
13-18 décembre 1988
Théâtre de la Ville
Paris (FR)
24 novembre 1988
Centre Chorégraphique National d’Orléans
Orléans (FR)
5 au 15 novembre 1988
Centre culturel Français
Belgrade (SRB)
6 octobre 1988
La Boîte à Musique
Auch (FR)
2-4 septembre 1988
Theater Spektakel
Zurich (CH)
19-21 août 1988
Stadtkino
Salzbourg (AT)
2-15 août 1988
Halle K6
Hambourg (DE)
11-12 juillet 1988
Festival di Milano
Milano (IT)
6-7 juillet 1988
Festival Internazionale Inteatro
Polverigi (IT)
