Program Trisha Brown Dance Company / Noé Soulier

Performance
Jun 27th, 2023

Dancers in Working Title by Trisha Brown

In a celebration of Trisha Brown’s rich body of work, her company presents two pieces which are a statement of the variety of questions and motifs explored through her dance. This creation by the choreographer Noé Soulier for the company’s performers prolongs this journey – bridging the gap between living archive and present gestures.

Since Trisha Brown passed away in 2017, her company, directed by Carolyn Lucas continues to bring alive and pass on her heritage via a wide-ranging repertory. From her early forays into the realms of American post-modern dance up to her large-scale works for the Opera, Trisha Brown redefined in a profound way the landscape of choreographic creation through her fluid approach to movement. In order to celebrate the links set up between the choreographer and France, the Trish Brown Dance Company presents two pieces which bear witness to this fertile relationship: For MG: The Movie, a piece tainted with melancholy, dedicated to the memory of Michel Guy, the Festival d’Automne’s founder; and Working Title, which draws upon unexpected, asymmetric motifs and confronts bodies subject to gravity with the figure of a weightless body. Noé Soulier’s commission echoes the radiance of this work today. For him, the ‘Brownian-movement’ outmanoeuvres the geometric paradigm of modern dance and necessitates a deep-seated decentring of physical points of reference. By entering into dialogue with the work of Trisha Brown, he seeks to experience the living archive in existence within the company’s performers but also to confront them with the impulse of his own choreographic principles.

On tour :
> Le Quai, Angers 16/11 - 17/11/2023

> La Coursive, La Rochelle 21/11/2023

> Maison de la Dance, Lyon 24/11 - 25/11/2023

> Opéra de Massy, Massy 28/11/2023

> La Filature, Mulhouse 01/12/2023

> Antipolis Théâtre d'Antibes, Antibes 05/12/2023

> Maison des Arts Créteil, Créteil 07/12 - 09/12/2023

> Théâtre du Beauvais, Beauvais 12/12/2023

> Théâtre Jean Arp de Clamart, Chatillon 16/12/2023

In 2023, Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels is supporting the Trisha Brown Dance Company for the creation of this program comprised of one performance by Noé Soulier and two works of Trisha Brown.

Photo : © Sandy Korzekwa

 

About the artists

Portrait of Noé Soulier © Wilfried Thierry

Noé Soulier

In 2025, Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels presents the pieces by Noé Soulier In the Fall in collaboration with Sadler's Wells and Close Up in collaboration with Royal Ballet and Opera as part of the Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels festival in London. 

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Black and white portrait of Trisha Brown dancing © Johan Elbers

Trisha Brown

In 2025, Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels presents in collaboration with Sadler's Wells Working Title by Trisha Brown in a double bill as part of the Dance Reflections by Van Cleef festival in London. 

Trisha Brown (1936-2017) is considered one of the most inventive and influential dancers and choreographers of the second half of the 20th century. Born and raised in Aberdeen, Washington, graduating from Mills College in Oakland, California, Brown studied with Anna Halprin before moving to New York City in 1961. In 1970, she formed her company and explored the terrain of her adoptive SoHo. In doing so, she embarked on a 40-year odyssey along the many paths of contemporary dance, marked by improvisation and experimentation, pushing back the limits of the body and incorporating unexpected urban and natural spaces (rooftops, walls, galleries, etc.).

She engaged collaborators who are themselves leaders in music, theater, and the visual arts, including visual artists Robert Rauschenberg, Donald Judd, and Elizabeth Murray, and musicians Laurie Anderson, John Cage, and Alvin Curran, to name a few. With these partners, Trisha Brown has created an exceptionally varied body of over 100 dance works that pushed the limits of choreography and changed modern dance forever. Brown is also an accomplished visual artist; her drawings have been seen in exhibitions, galleries and museums throughout the world. She is represented by Sikkema Jenkins & Co. in NYC.

Trisha Brown is the first woman choreographer to receive the coveted MacArthur Foundation Fellowship “Genius Award.” She has been awarded many other honors including five fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the NY ‘Bessie’ Lifetime Achievement Award, the Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize, and the Dance/USA Honors Award. She has been named a Veuve Clicquot Grande Dame, Commandeur dans l’Ordre des Arts et Lettres by the government of France.