JANET ON THE ROOF

 JANET ON THE ROOF re-writes a state of oblivion that permeates everything around us and ultimately becomes the background of our existence.

Attacks, catastrophes and imminent threats impact and compress our concepts of time and perception. In this case, it is a matter of seizing upon this time-space and prolonging its duration, or breaking it down, in order to better understand, uncover and enlarge the micro-events that occur within it: the self-evidence, the irreversibility, the logic of the instant or a feeling of stupefaction. Although these may seem rather simple to analyse when taken individually, their instantaneous nature makes them difficult to grasp in the specific the moment.

JANET ON THE ROOF is a long fall of one inexorable movement. It is the moment we see a leaf break from a branch and know it will fall from the tree to the ground. We see the entire path it will take along its fall as the leaf will always follow the same principle, each micro-movement along the way rather familiar. Throughout the 50-minute duration of the piece, the performer’s movements adhere to an analogous principle, a theme and variation, a process in which both surprise and familiarity are inherent. 

When we analyse these moments of shock we can further observe that a great deal of what happens is as much surprising as it is identifiable or even expected.  In JANET ON THE ROOF we discover the sudden temporal compressions that emerge from these moments. The first one surprises the audience, the second a little less and the third becomes almost banal. While fear may incite us to look for solutions, shock annihilates the fecund nature of what’s possible. Terror, furthermore, generates a type of anxiety that is diffused; its sheer repetition may even lead us to paralysis.

While what surprises us may be shocking, what is shocking surprises us no more.

The piece articulates, among other things, this erosion of our sensibilities.

COPRODUCTIONS
Ballet de l’Opéra national du Rhin - Centre Chorégraphique National
Centre chorégraphique national de Rillieux-la-Pape, direction Yuval PICK -
 Le Pacifique l CDC-Grenoble

RESIDENCIES
Espace le Corbusier / Firminy - ADC Genève - Ramdam, un centre d'art (pour la fabrication des décors)