Giselle…
François Gremaud
© Dorothée Thébert Filliger
In 2025, Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels presents Giselle… by François Gremaud in collaboration with the Royal Ballet and Opera as part of the Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels festival in London.
Giselle… is not Giselle : Giselle… is a theatrical, musical and choreographic piece about Giselle, a monumental figure in Romantic ballet.
On an empty stage, an orator appears. The artist Samantha van Wissen begins by telling the story of Giselle, its context, aesthetics, and fable, and ends up dancing the ballet in her own way. Drawing upon her contemporary vocabulary, she retraces the main scenes, re-enacts the pantomime and plays down the classical language.
Before Carmen. and following on from Phèdre !, François Gremaud brings us the second opus in a triptych centred upon tragic female figures from the classical performing arts, thereby continuing his development of a stylistic mechanism which consists of reducing a piece into a « paraphrase » for an orator. His mischievous text stratifies the playing levels between the ballet's heroine, main character and performer. Played live, Luca Antignani's score re-instrumentalises the original work and adds a iconoclastic saxophone to the flute, harp and violin trio.
About the artist
© Niels Ackermann
François Gremaud
In 2025, Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels presents Giselle... by François Gremaud in collaboration with Royal Ballet and Opera as part of the Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels festival in London.
Whether working alone, with Pierre Mifsud or with Victor Lenoble, or as a six-handed member of the GREMAUD/GURTNER/BOVAY collective, François Gremaud is making his own mark with the Swiss 2b company (co-founded in 2005 with Michaël Monney). (Co-)writer, (co-)actor, (co-)director, he likes to take the side of the idiots, in the philosophical sense of the term: those who, with their amused perspective, reveal our shortcomings. If he uses laughter, it's to better understand his main subject - human beings - and their prodigious capacity to do things, despite the tragedy of their condition. For him, joy is more than just nature. It is his signature, both artistic and political.
This is reflected in a repertoire considered by critics to be one of the most innovative in French-speaking Switzerland, including KKQQ, Re, Conférence de choses (the complete version of which lasts eight hours) and the trilogy he has devoted to 3 great female figures of the classical performing arts and 3 exceptional performers: Phèdre ! with Romain Daroles, Giselle... with Samantha van Wissen and Carmen. with Rosemary Standley. Gremaud is the winner of the 2019 Swiss Theater Awards and in 2022 he won the Grand Prix of the Fondation Vaudoise pour la Culture.
