Compagnie Hervé KOUBI

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Mail: herve.koubi@wanadoo.fr
or guillaumegabriel@cie-koubi.com

Coppélia, une fiancée aux yeux d’émail...

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Piece for 5 dancers / A duration of 25 minutes

Dress our Leather Coppélia. Look at Coppélia with the eyes of a big child, when this puppet will be ‘mistress’ of the game, ‘mistress’ of the heart of her suitors.

Being inspired by a work on puppet theatre by Henrich Von Kleist, I would like to make you believe that a mechanical puppet could contain more charm than the frame of the human body.

Through love of Frantz, Swanilda takes the place of Coppélia the puppet. At least that’s how it goes in the booklet…
What if Coppélia had’nt been replaced?

Using this amusing book, profiting from the unfinished work and rewriting it, and also taking the music composed by Léo Délibes, the waltz but also (and most especially) the exhilarating mazurka.

Redrawing Coppélia…using an eraser and some colour crayons, take off or add here and there some fantasies…a lot of red but also some black, as black as those ‘shiny, shiny boots of leather’ worn by Séverine in ‘Venus in furs’ by ‘The Velvet Underground’. Equally as pretty, the costume will be blackened. The ‘pointe’ will be replaced by the stiletto heel, the knot in the hair by the whip.

Using certain ingredients which have been the base of ballet ‘par excellence’. Using the pantomime to serve to create sense of situation that too much narrative might censor. Perhaps all of this may render the subject more comprehensible and reveals it’s meaning.

Highlighting this immense love for Coppélia to the point of replacing her admirers by young males, slaves to their own feelings. Coppélia fascinates, but it is only a puppet, not alive but yet…

Our Coppélia was created with the help of the dancers and especially Alexandra Besnier and Min-Jeong Kim who reside in a ‘reinvented Coppélia’. More than just working on character interpretation, they are my accomplices in exercing this fascinating and bewitching power of seduction. They ceselessly remind me that Coppélia, although invisible, is always there.

Perhaps Coppélius is also the evocation of all those dark reasons originating from our quest for love and beauty, which weigh unconsciously on our tastes, our choices. For me Frantz is not in love with Coppélia but with all that he aspires to. Maybe he resembles all of us?

“There exists no being capable of loving another such as he is. We always ask for modifications. This is because we never love just a phantom; that which is real cannot be desired”
Paul Valéry

Lastly, I chose the scene as to evoke the bedroom of Coppélia. Therefore the public will be lower down in the house of Coppélius and will perceive Coppélia similar to how Frantz observed her from his balcony in 1870.

I would like to particularly thank the dancers Wilfride Piollet and Monique Loudières for our discussions which helped to enlighten me.

Hervé Koubi – Extacts from his notebook

Credits:

• Choreographer: Hervé KOUBI
  Assistant choreographer: Guillaume GABRIEL
  Creatice assistance: Benjamin BAC / Alexandre DA SILVA / Mamajung KIM
  Dancers: Alexandra BESNIER / Guillaume GABRIEL / David GUASGUA / Min-Jeong KIM / Carl PORTAL
  Musicians: Léo DELIBES and Kronos Quatett
  Costume design: Guillaume GABRIEL / Cécile LABRUNIE (research)
  Lighting: Lionel BUZONIE

Legal notices:

• Production: Compagnie Hervé KOUBI
  Coproduction: Ville de Cannes Direction des Affaires Culturelles - Made in Cannes / Ville de Brive-la-Gaillarde / Centre Culturel de Loudéac - Scène conventionnée - micro plateaux / Festival Dansité de Vallauris / Centre Chorégraphique National de Nantes - Claude Brumachon et Benjamin Lamarche / Ballet Biarritz - Thierry Malandain Centre Chorégraphique National.
  
  With the help of Festival Cadences - Scène conventionnée plateau pour la danse, du Théâtre de la Grange de Brive-la-Gaillarde, du Théâtre de la Licorne de Cannes, Théâtre de Cusset, du Théâtre de l’Olivier d’Istres - Scène conventionnée Art du geste, de la Maison de la Danse d’Istres, des Studios actuels de la danse de Vallauris, du Centre Culturel Jean-Pierre Fabrègue de Saint-Yrieix-La-Perche, de La Fabrique de Guéret, de l’Espace l’Ecluse de La Souterraine, du Centre Culturel de Tergnier, du Théâtre Juliette Gréco de Carros, de La Médoquine de Talence, du Centre Culturel de Sarlat, du Théâtre de Saint Lô - Scène conventionnée autour des écritures, du Théâtre de Vanves Festival Artdanthé, de la Maison de l’Art et de la Communication de Sallaumines, du Centre Culturel d’Arques, de la MJC de Rodez, du Théâtre de Villefranche de Rouergue, du Centre Culturel de Digoin, du Théâtre de Sarcelles, du Centre Culturel de Saint Martin Les Boulogne, du Centre Culturel de Bergerac, du Théâtre de Saint Dizier, du Préau de Vire - Centre Dramatique régional, du Théâtre de l’Hôtel de Ville Saint Barthélémy d’Anjou, du Théâtre de Montauban, du Théâtre de Montargis, du Centre Culturel de Segré, du Théâtre de Verdun, de l’association Côte d’Opale Danse, de la Foire du Livre de Brive-la-Gaillarde, de la Compagnie Thor - Direction artistique thierry Smits de Bruxelles, de l’Ecole Supérieure de Danse de Cannes Rosella Higtower- Direction artistique Monique Loudières.

Distribution:

• 23 September 2008: Festival Cadences - Scène conventionnée plateau pour la danse
  25 September 2008: Théâtre de la Grange de Brive
  23 October 2008: Espace l’Ecluse de La Souterraine
  8 November 2008: Espace des Trois Provinces de Brive-la-Gaillarde
  14 November 2008: Centre culturel de Tergnier
  28 November 2008: Festival Made In Cannes
  29 November 2008: Centre Culturel de Carros
  9 January 2009: La Médoquine de Talence
  22 January 2009: Centre Culturel de Sarlat
  30 January 2009: Palais des congrès de Loudéac
  5 February 2009: Théâtre de Saint Lô - Scène conventionnée autour des écritures
  6 February 2009: Théâtre de Vanves Festival Artdanthé
  14 February 2009: Maison de l’Art et de la Communication de Sallaumines
  20 February 2009: Centre Culturel d’Arques
  17 March 2009: MJC de Rodez
  18 March 2009: Théâtre de Villefranche de Rouergue
  20 March 2009: Centre Culturel de Digoin
  24 March 2009: Théâtre de Sarcelles
  27 March 2009: Centre Culturel de Saint Martin Les Boulogne
  31 March, 1st, 2, 3, 4, 5 April 2009: Théâtre National de Nice Centre Dramatique National
  8 April 2009: Centre Culturel de Bergerac
  14 April 2009: Théâtre de Saint Dizier
  28 April 2009: Le Préau - Centre Dramatique régional
  29 April 2009: Théâtre de l’Hôtel de Ville Saint Barthélémy d’Anjou
  5 May 2009: Théâtre de Montauban
  15 May 2009: Théâtre de Montargis
  28 and 29 May 2009: Centre Culturel de Segré
  9 June 2009: Les connivences de Juin - Centre Chorégraphique National de Nantes
  11 June 2009: Théâtre de Verdun
  17 September: 2009 Festival Le Temps d’aimer à Biarritz
  26 November 2009: centre culturel de Vitré
  28 November 2009: Centre culturel La Passerelle de Fleury-les-aubrais
  2 December 2009: Festival International de Danse de cannes
  9 December 2009: Sémaphore de Cébazat - Scène conventionnée
  12 December 2009: Festival de danse de Mérida Yucatán (Mexique)
  17 December 2009: Le nouveau Relax Scène conventionnée de Chaumont
  28 January 2010: Théâtre du Pays de Redon
  29 January 2010: Théâtre Quartier Libre d’Ancenis
  9 February 2010: Théâtre de Cusset
  13 March 2010: Animatis d’Issoire
  19 March 2010: Centre Culturel Jean-Pierre Fabrègue de Saint-Yrieix-La-Perche
  3 April 2010: Apollo de Mazamet
  14 May 2010: Théâtre de Dax
  17 June 2010: Teatro Bolivar de Quito
  19 June 2010: Teatro Shuchig de Manta
  22 June 2010: Centro de Arte de Guayaquil