BNF Bibliothèque nationale de France
2 février, 2026 - 8 juin, 2026
Chorégraphie pour une oeuvre
Simone de Beauvoir - Manuscrit, « Le Deuxième sexe »
Saison 2 - Artiste invité : Trajal Harrell site Richelieu - salle Ovale
Spectacle vivant : Chorégraphie pour une œuvre 16 fév. 2026 20 h - 21 h
English
Trajal Harrell created a choreographic tribute to the manuscript of “Le Deuxième sexe” by Simone de Beauvoir in an emotional movescape: interpreted by Vânia Doutel Vaz, Maria Ferreira Silva, Challenge Gumbodete, New Kyd, Stephen Thompson, and Ondrej Vidlar. Harrell used an adaptation in situ for the BnF of his piece “Education in Tambourines” or “The Celebration of the Girl Child” as a basis of a dramaturge based on “The Scarlet Letter”: a historical novel by American author Nathaniel Hawthorne, published in 1850. Set in the Puritan Massachusetts Bay Colony during the years 1642 to 1649, the novel tells the story of Hester Prynne, who conceives a daughter with a man to whom she is not married and then struggles to lead a new life of repentance and dignity. As punishment, she must wear a scarlet letter 'A' (for "adultery"). Containing a number of religious and historic allusions, the book explores themes of legalism, sin, and guilt. Harrell’s oeuvre uses soft caressing gestures in a movement vocabulary lending a compelling ritualization to a preacher’s sermon. Finally reaching an emotional crescendo in the passing of an unseen newborn child from the embracing-to-embracing arms of the welcoming parishioners. The heart felt choreographic vocabulary expressing a redemption of socially perceived sins through communal embracing emanating from Herrell’s creative tribute to Simone de Beauvoir was a pleasure to be shared.
Française
Trajal Harrell a créé un hommage chorégraphique au manuscrit de « Le Deuxième sexe » de Simone de Beauvoir dans un moveescape émotionnel: interprété par Vânia Doutel Vaz, Maria Ferreira Silva, Challenge Gumbodete, New Kyd, Stephen Thompson et Ondrej Vidlar. Harrell utilisa une adaptation in situ pour la BnF de son œuvre « L'Éducation dans les tambourins » ou « La célébration de la fille » comme base d'un dramaturge basé sur « La Lettre écarlate » : un roman historique de l'auteur américain Nathaniel Hawthorne, publié en 1850. Situé dans la colonie puritaine de la baie du Massachusetts entre 1642 et 1649, le roman raconte l'histoire d'Hester Prynne, qui conçoit une fille avec un homme auquel elle n'est pas mariée, puis lutte pour mener une nouvelle vie de repentir et de dignité. En punition, elle doit porter une lettre écarlate 'A' (pour « adultère »). Contenant plusieurs allusions religieuses et historiques, le livre explore les thèmes du légalisme, du péché et de la culpabilité. L'œuvre de Harrell utilise des gestes doux de caresse dans un vocabulaire de mouvement, apportant une ritualisation captivante au sermon d'un prédicateur. Atteignant enfin un crescendo émotionnel dans le passage d'un nouveau-né invisible des bras accueillants des paroissiens accueillants. Le vocabulaire chorégraphique sincère, exprimant la rédemption des péchés perçus socialement par l'étreinte collective émanant de l'hommage créatif de Herrell à Simone de Beauvoir, était un plaisir à partager.
LIEU - La BnF Richelieu Salle Ovale
Review by: Patrick Kevin O'Hara
Date line: Monday the 16th of February, 2026
Sonia Delaunay – Dessins de maquettes de costumes
Spectacle vivant : Chorégraphie pour une œuvre 2 fév. 2026 20 h - 21 h
Richelieu Salle Ovale
Trajal_Harrell_c_Rita_Antonioli
Introduction: Practical information The BnF invites choreographers to bring its collections to life through dance. The new edition of "Choreography for a Work", imagined around a fictional encounter between Sonia Delaunay, Simone de Beauvoir and Édith Piaf, was entrusted to the artist Trajal Harrell who will present three creations. To open the second season of the "Choreography for a Work" cycle, Trajal Harrell was inspired by Sonia Delaunay's costume drawings, kept in the collections, and creates a dialogue with her own choreographic creations. The choreographic fiction begins with the portrait of Sonia Delaunay (1885-1979). Back in Paris after the war, the painter resumed her artistic activity and regained a certain recognition. She exhibits and collaborates in the art and design world. This first session features the choreographer Trajal Harrell, who performs a dance solo around drawings of Sonia Delaunay's costume models exhibited at the BnF museum. REVIEW: Trajal Harrell is a charming dancer who seduces with a very personalized gestural and choreographic repertoire, with which he creates a movescape wherein he dialogues with his muse, combining techniques of voguing and butoh (squat, earthbound physique, and the natural movements of the common folk) with early postmodern dance. Part of his charm is conveyed by his creation of imaginary characters whose presence is evident through his gestural magic which renders the invisible visible. Harrell’s technical prowess is profound: based on an innate capacity to communicate place, character, and time using a deceptively simple choreographic palette. His encounter with Delaunay, via auto draping her creations, is an exquisite journey of a voyeur in the harem of a Sultan’s imagination wherein Harrell sports a voluptuous sexuality. From beginning to end he enchants and bemuses it is with impatience that we await his further tristes with Simone de Beauvoir and Édith Piaf! Costume-pour-le-Carnaval-de-Rio-by-Sonia-Delaunay Choreography and performance: Trajal Harrell ****************************************************************************************************** Production: Friederike Kötter Technical direction, sound: Santiago Latorre With Tickle the Sleeping Giant Inc., New York, and Catherine Levine "Choreography for a work" is a project imagined by Aymar Crosnier in collaboration with the Bibliothèque nationale de France. Production: Bibliothèque nationale de France, STRUCTUUR (Aymar Crosnier, Briac Geffrault), so we might as well dance With the support of the Glass Menagerie as part of the StudioLab scheme STRUCTUUR warmly thanks Christophe Susset
Costume-pour-le-Carnaval-de-Rio-by-Sonia-Delaunay
Date line: Monday the 2nd of February, 2026
COLLECTIF XY
Le Pas du Monde
31.10.2025 - 23.11.2025
la Villette - Espace Chapiteaux
Collectif-XY©Fabrice-Dimier
COLLECTIF XY takes us on a voyage of discovery to the roots of civilization: that which through mutual collaboration and gregarious interaction has enabled our species to flourish. A marvelous, at times miraculous, movescape: created by Airelle Caen, Alejo Bianchi, Alice Noël, Amaia Valle, Antonio Terrones y Hernandez, Camille de Truchis, Clémence Gilbert, Consuelo Burgos, Cyril Héritier, Denis Dulon, Diego Ruiz Moreno, Etienne Revenu, Florian Sontowski, Guillaume Sendron, Hamza Benlabied, Julie Calbete, Kritonas Anastasopoulos, Oded Avinathan, Pedro Guerra, Raphaela Olivo, "Tuco" Hage Meany, and Virginie Benoist, unveils the secrets of movement techniques, common to civilizations around the world, using totem pyramidal creations to scan and explore their world. An enchanting soundscape: designed by Jack McWeeny, with musical direction and vocal composition by Virginie Benoist, envelopes the saga, developed through the adroit dramaturgical accompaniment of Olivia Burton; illustrating the didactic intentions of the choreographic scenography. Éric Soyer has created an excellent lighting design, complementing, never obscuring, the virtuoso plasticity, placidity and physicality displayed by the creative artists. Costume design by Céline Perrigon assisted by Ophélie Parmentier, with the artistic collaborations of Julie Calbete, Fanny Soriano, and Maya Zimmerlin round out the cornucopia of delights to be enjoyed by all! A must see for all ages! PKO
LE PAS DU MONDE - Video
LIEU - la Villette - Espace Chapiteaux
Date line: Friday the 31st of Novembre, 2025
Circa
En Masse / Hans Jörg Mammel - Tanguy de Williencourt - Thomas Enhco - Yaron Lifschitz - Stravinski, Schubert, Lewis
Philharmonie de Paris
Samedi 14 juin 2025
Circa_En-Masse_Photo-by-David-Kelly
Circa, an Australian company, performed two contrasting circassien (a member of a circus troupe) creations in Paris at the Philharmonic de Paris in the Grande salle Pierre Boulez on Saturday the 14th of June 2025. Yaron Lifschitz, the artistic director and choreographer of Circa, has created two unique theatre pieces, using the movement vocabulary of circus acrobats, in movescapes that are rich in expressive gestures and athletic virtuosity to recount strongly contrasting stories, one of love lost and the other of a collective sacrifice to ensure a group’s future. Lifschitz’s first piece suffers from on overdose of excellent material that masks the originality of his work. Extracts from the lieder (Swan Song, Winter Journey) by Franz Schubert, sung by Hans Jörg Mammel, and Tanguy de Williencourt at piano with additional music by Klara Lewis overpowered the visuals of the Circassians encased in an inflated plastic cavern that did nothing to embellish the marvelous work performed within an unnecessary stage construction. cirques: Photo by Damien Bredberg The second work is a chef-oeuvre that transcends all barriers to achieve its transmission of the meaning of Igor Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring through the exquisite clarity of the circassien language used by Lifschitz and interpreted by the incredible artists; Jon Bonaventura, Holly-Rose Boyer, Helga Ehrenbusch, Chelsea Hall, Samuel Letch, Laya Mauelshagen, Oscar Morris, Daniel O’Brien, Joshua Strachan, and Christina Zauner of the Circa company. A special mention must go to the magnificent playing of the two-piano accompaniment by Tanguy de Williencourt, and Thomas Enhco. Bravos and brava to the excellent work of: Richard Clarke, lighting, Libby McDonnell, costume design, Anna Handford, Costume Design Assistant, Costume Making Sue Gibson, costume making Janie Grant, costume designer Amanda Lakin, costume designer Jason Organ, Technical Director, Jon Blake, Props, and Danielle Kellie, production. A must see! PKO
cirques: Photo by Damien Bredberg
LIEU - Philharmonie de Paris
Date line: Saturday the 14th of June 2025
En Masse by Circa - Video
Ola Maciejewska un siècle plus tard
Spectacle vivant : Chorégraphie pour une œuvre
Photo-by-Waleed-Shah
Ola Maciejewska presented a movescape tribute, at the Bibliothèque nationale de France, to the memory of a seminal founder of contemporary dance, Loie Fuller, who revolutionized choreographic concepts with her Serpentine dance in the 1890s in America and France. The dancers: Maëva Berthelot, Marta Capaccioli, Luis Carricaburu, Adam Chado, and Aurelien Vieillard interpreted Maciejewska’s creation with elan, reverence and the impressive strength necessary for the manipulation of full body capes, with which they evoked Fuller’s strenuous arm and body movements. In absolute silence, the movescape unfolded before a mesmerized audience of dance and art aficionados, punctuated only by the whooshing, swishing, and sighing of the capes cutting and embracing the ambient air, grounded by the counter punctual taping and scraping of the dancer’s running shoes on the floor of the Oval room of the BNF. Marta Capaccioli deserves special praise for her interpretation of Fuller technique, which engenders images of natural phenomena, within the ever-growing nomenclature of dance, with the added plus of embracing current ecological concerns. The BNF is to be congratulated: for their ever-growing presentation of live performances and exhibitions, within the confines of the magnificent enclosures of the national libraries, for the general public. PKO
LIEU - Bibliothéque Nationale de France
Date line: Monday the 5th of May, 2025