After more than six years of reflection, research and creation, the show MWON’D by choreographer Rhodnie Désir will see the light of day from December 7 to 10 at the Agora de la danse. Through an approach similar to a documentary film, the first artist associated with Place des Arts slowly approaches the acceleration of climate change.
Creation MWON’D is in its second version. Indeed, in 2017, Rhodnie Désir had already initiated a creative process focusing on the environment. “I had a lot of anger in me, I needed to create not to scream. I also mixed several causes, I spoke of the planet, but also of women’s rights, ”she recalls. Five years later, his angle has changed a bit. “A lot of things have happened in my life. In particular, I became a mother, and that made me think a lot. What is my relationship to space? And to Mother Earth? What would it be like to rebirth the world? she says.
Rhodnie Désir then went in search of answers, or at the very least discussions, with experts. A process that she embraces for all these works. “Oral tradition is one of the oldest methods of preserving memory, it is one of the most powerful, but also mysterious, tools of transmission of human beings,” she says. Astrophysicist, botanist, volcanologist, mycologist… all of them have nourished his reflection, and have made it possible to construct the work. “My body takes what remains, the essential oil, of these conversations and I can make the alchemy of it that I want, through singing, dancing movement… The bodies on stage become manifest and carry the sum of the testimonies” , explains the founder of the company RD Créations.
Time and evolution
“What if we learned to speak the language of nature? I think animals, mountains, oceans… have a lot to teach us. There is a quiet strength that is found in the great elements of nature,” says Rhodnie Désir. She explains, moreover, that the relationship to time is “very different” when we think of biodiversity, and more precisely of “its beings that cross time”. “We human beings have a deadline, a fairly short lifespan, say between 0 and 100 years, but 100 years, for a mountain, is nothing at all! Same thing for a turtle, a whale, a glacier! she adds. Thus, the idea of proportion has become “central” in his work. The fact that it is unequal between humans and nature prevents real awareness, according to the designer. “Today, if we have to walk for the climate, OK, it’s concrete, but to say that we have to protect a mountain for the next 1000 years, it doesn’t make sense to us, so we forget, we move on,” she said.
Still in her research on nature, Rhodnie Désir was also interested in the notion of evolution. “We are going in the opposite direction at the moment,” she laments. We went from four legs to the standing position, and there, we start to stoop to go back to four legs, it seems. We have forgotten the notion of evolution…”.
Today, if we have to walk for the climate, OK, it’s concrete, but to say that we have to protect a mountain for the next 1000 years, that doesn’t make sense to us, so we forget, we move on.
According to the artist, it is essential today to think about the future and future generations. “How do I, a human being, evolve my species? Beyond grocery shopping, watching TV and working? In 200 years, Rhodnie evolved, what will it look like, and how do I manifest it now? she suggests as a line of thought.
A space to get out of the body for a moment
On stage, there are six performers; dancers, but also a musician, Engone Endong. A choice that was made at the last minute. “Before, we played his music during rehearsals, but it jostled the performers’ bodies, it wasn’t alive. We tried again, it did not succeed, remembers Mme Desire. Then, finally, I asked Engone Endong to be present on stage, and that greatly improved things. The dancers’ senses and bodies came alive. This is the magic of an accompanying musician. »
We also find, among the artists, an “other body”: a gigantic aluminum film, a material that was not at all chosen at random. “It’s one of the most flexible metals. It also allows connection between elements, is transparent and opaque at the same time, seems heavy, but is light, and it has a hypnotic sound, describes Mme Desire. We see all of nature in this film, and it’s much better than a screen! »
Beyond the material, the choreographer also saw a symbol in it, since this large film was designed with survival blankets. “It overhangs and it covers, it’s both magical, but also tragic,” she says.
For MWON’D, Rhodnie Désir has also looked into the notion of wonder. “When we are very young, it is part of our daily life. Finding adults who marvel easily, outside of consumer systems, is very rare,” she laments. Thus, with this new creation, Rhodnie Désir hopes to offer “a space where the public can leave their body for a moment”. For this, she used a lot of slowness. “It’s at the heart of the process, but not in a contemplative sense, more like a time of connection, of questioning. It is a time when people can “open” their senses, like the volcano erupting, like the glacier losing a fragment, like the panther protecting its young… Open their senses beyond what the human being knows, she concludes. This is perhaps how we could try to make our species evolve. »