For the first time in her career, choreographer Mélanie Demers takes on the role of director for her creation black cabaret. Inspired among other things by the social events of 2020, Black Lives Matter, the death of George Floyd or that of Joyce Echaquan, the dance artist reveals here her vision of the world as a black person. Singular and multiple at the same time.
“Often, the black person in a group becomes a spokesperson, a symbol of black people. With black cabaret, we want to draw from our individualities, the multiplicity of our identities, and that, we can do it because we are together, between us”, says Mélanie Demers. While his latest creation, The Goddam Milky Wayleaned on the female psyche, black cabaret “unveils the world through the prism of black identity, if such a thing exists”.
It is in 2020 that this project begins. In the midst of a pandemic, Mélanie Demers is approached by the artistic and general director of Théâtre Prospero, Carmen Jolin, to participate in the series of laboratories Territoires de parole. “She offered me to do something about the death of George Floyd, but I thought it was too big a mandate. I preferred to offer a reflection on black identity, on negritude, on what it means to be a black person in a predominantly white society, ”recalls Mélanie Demers. For two weeks, the choreographer and five artists from all walks of life (lighting designer, actors and actress, dancer) question their reality, without thinking about the finished product. “It was just a playground. It wasn’t supposed to be a show at first. Just a moment of sharing,” says Mélanie Demers.
After a presentation to the Prospero team, Carmen Jolin encourages Mélanie Demers to put on a show. “It was not part of my plans, nor my budget! says the designer. But we had this desire to get together and push the reflection, to share it with the public too. An additional challenge that continues to make sense. “Between us, we didn’t ask ourselves the question, we didn’t need to explain anything, because black identity, we live it in our flesh, in our fibers. But once you have an audience, you have to know who you’re talking to, what you have to explain, what you keep as it is, what messages you want to broadcast without becoming moralistic…”, explains the artist .
From dance to theater
A choreographer for more than 15 years, Mélanie Demers had to put on the role of director for the first time in her career. A challenge that led her to question the parallels and differences between the two practices. “With dance, creation is such an incredible vertigo! Not only is there a blank page, but there is a blank studio, there is nothing! she says. With the theatre, we have a small base, we start from words, from things that already exist. »
For the artist, theatrical creation obliges him to create meaning, to ask himself the question of the message, of the common thread. Dance, on the other hand, can completely “fall into abstraction”. “Dancers trust that meaning will emerge later, sometimes very late. Or that it will never emerge. While the actors need to question, need to know their intention, what they stand for, to create and embody the show,” she thinks. So, therefore, to create black cabaretMélanie Demers had to “trigger another part of her brain” to nurture a practice that is less familiar to her.
However, she still believes that the “signature MAYDAY”, the company she founded in 2007, shines through in the work. “When I’m in the world of dance, I encourage my collaborators to ask questions about the work, a bit like in theater after all. And there, in the theatrical world, I asked the actors to trust instinct, like in dance. I am always between two chairs, I always have a mixed-race position. »
Pictures and words
Since November 2020, Mélanie Demers and her accomplices meet sporadically to build this unexpected piece. “It’s not a show that I work on continuously. We were only together for a few weeks. It’s a bit rushed, but it allows us to bring out the immediacy, to work on the imperfection. It fits with the idea of a cabaret,” she explains.
black cabaret is indeed made up of several parts, the first of which is inspired by literature. “I brought all the books from my library, those that made up my black identity. James Baldwin, Dany Laferrière, Tintin, the Gallimard guide to West Africa, etc. “, she explains. The six artists then read passages from these books to each other, in order to build “a multiple word, trusting in randomness”. “If I open the biography of Martin Luther King and I come across the excerpt where we talk about the fact that he cheated on his wife, it does not give us the same perception as when we read about his activism and the civil rights,” says Mélanie Demers. The first scene is a “maelstrom of ideas that become our black cabaret”, “a real auto-da-fé” where the artists burn these various words. A way, according to Mélanie Demers, to free herself from the burden of having to constantly represent a community.
Then comes the idea of the cabaret, with its various numbers, music, dance, theatre, inspired by emblematic scenes, Pass-Everywhere to the cinematographic universe of Spike Lee, via Throw and count or Othello. “It’s all over the place, and that’s the beauty of research. It’s a new mythology that we create among ourselves, where we draw on our childhood memories, between traumas, scars and materials of inspiration,” adds Mélanie Demers.
For the choreographer, black cabaret is a piece that allows “above all to feel together, as human beings”. “One day, we won’t need a black cabaret anymore,” she concludes. But we are not there yet. »