a documentary follows the rehearsals of a show danced by elderly people

“In every old person, there is a young person who wonders what happened.” This quote, attributed to American burlesque film actor Groucho Marx, the renowned choreographer Angelin Preljocaj experimented with it when he decided to hire people over 65 years old for his future creation. After having auditioned, in France and Italy, more than 300 people from various social backgrounds, most of whom had never danced, he selected eight men and women for a show planned at the Théâtre national de Chaillot in Paris .

The documentary The strength of age, directed by Valérie Müller, accompanies, for two months, the development of this show like no other, from the selection of future performers, aged 67 to 79, to the final rehearsals. The film reveals the determination, the fragilities and the anxieties of these elderly people, who show, without filter, their aging bodies. These dancers, mostly beginners, find themselves confronted with their physical limits, their memory which struggles to retain the numerous movements required by this show, but this work also provokes awarenesses which are sometimes more painful.

Memory put to the test

With six hours of intense rehearsals per day, it is a real challenge for Maïté, the oldest in the troupe. Of Vietnamese origin, this 79-year-old beginner dancer is retired from the city of Paris. Beyond the pain that dancing sometimes inflicts on his body, it is above all his memory processes that are put to the test. “In terms of memory, it’s a little more difficult. When Angelin shows the movement, I say to myself ‘that’s it, I understand’ but actually no. Me, I need [les montrer] maybe five times more, because I’ve already forgotten the beginning.” This is confirmed by Patricia, a 70-year-old former Pilates teacher. “It’s something we’re no longer used to doing, working on our memory like that.” A difficulty that the choreographer had not anticipated. “I’m used to working with young bodies. (…) But, with these old people, (…) I think I behave in exactly the same way.”

“How do I remember these hundreds of movements that I ask them to articulate to create this language? And there, there is also a great deal of work that I ultimately had not imagined.”

Angelin Preljocaj

In the force of the age”

Among the performers of the future show is 67-year-old singer Elli Medeiros. Propelled to the forefront at the end of the 1980s, she made the whole of France dance with her song You, my roof. Preparing for the ballet painfully confronts the artist with her body, but especially with her image, to the point that she wishes, for a moment, to abandon the project. She then confides in Angelin Preljocaj. “I am not well physically, I feel dizzy too. (…) I feel like I can’t do it. (…) I’m trying to see how I can manage my physical problems, but now I’ve discovered some bad things.”

Putting her body to the test isn’t the only difficulty Elli Medeiros faces. This experience calls into question her way of understanding old age and brings her back to the need to accept the stigma of time and try to get the most out of it.

“We see so many people who want to erase their age, explains Elli Medeiros in the film. Instead of embracing what it represents, (…) the fact of growing old, of changing, of seeing what you lose, but what you also gain. But what you lose, how painful it is.” Expose your body in a dance show acts like a magnifying mirror. This relentlessly reveals the physical incapacities due to age and makes us fear the sometimes cruel view that others have of old age, especially for women. But these are not Elli Medeiros’ only fears.

“There is also your own look at you, continues the singer. How you see yourself, you accept yourself or you don’t accept yourself. How do you take responsibility or not.(…) I believe that [le spectacle] made me take a step forward, to really look at myself. To say to myself: ‘what can I do with my body as it is now, my head is like that, what can I express with that?’ ” Despite her fears, Elli Medeiros will not leave the show and will follow Angelin’s valuable advice Preljocaj. “Think about what you do, and don’t think about what you are.“

The documentary The strength of age, directed by Valérie Müller, is broadcast Monday February 5 on France 3 at 10:55 p.m. and visible on the france.tv platform