Several months after the two performances of TO LIFE at the Théâtre de L’étoile du nord (April 2025), Tracy Danison, arts journalist and director of the blog “The Best American Poetry”, talks to us about the show through his memories and impressions.
Béatrice Lapadat’s article for online medium Cult.News is full of analysis and sensitivity, revealing her impressions and feelings after attending one of the two performances of SUZANNE’s choreographic piece TO LIFE at the Théâtre de L’étoile du Nord during the Festival IMMERSION DANSE on April 3 and 4.
“Née du désir de « surmonter ces crises, ces pandémies, ces guerres et ces conflits » qui hantent le monde, la performance To Life du Groupe Suzanne, co-dirigé par les chorégraphes-interprètes Julien Chaudet, Julien Deransy et Eurydice Gougeon-Marine, propose la marche comme action à la fois thérapeutique et militante.”
Following the two performances of SUZANNE’s choreographic piece TO LIFE at the Théâtre de L’étoile du Nord during the IMMERSION DANSE Festival on April 3 and 4, it’s Ballroom Revue Online‘s turn to give us its impressions of the show, and to transport us into the world of SUZANNE‘s latest creation, thanks to the aptly chosen words of Thomas Adam-Garnung.
“Le concept pourrait sembler simple, presque naïf : marcher ensemble pour résister. Mais l’exécution, elle, est d’une redoutable complexité. À force de variations de rythmes, de trajectoires, d’infimes décalages, To Life expose la virtuosité silencieuse du collectif. Ce parti pris du risque, d’oser l’imperfection visible, les désynchronisations fugaces, les maladresses humaines, est profondément courageux. Car ici, le ballet n’est pas fait pour étourdir par sa perfection ; il est fait pour rappeler que même dans la marche la plus rigoureusement orchestrée, l’humain, fragile, affleure.”
Following the two performances of the choreographic piece TO LIFE of SUZANNE at the Théâtre de L’étoile du Nord during the IMMERSION DANSE Festival on April 3 and 4, “À voir et à danser” shares its experience and feelings about the show in a sensitive article.
“Despite its dark, post-apocalyptic landscape, TO LIFE is an ode to life, with its gestures of solidarity and sharing, its singing, and its march towards a future we’re not yet sure will be a bright one.”
https://avoiretadanser.fr/to-life-lode-a-la-vie-de-suzanne-au-festival-immersion-danse/
On Thursday August 29, SUZANNE had the immense pleasure of premiering her piece TO LIFE at La Mégisserie in Saint-Junien as part of the CHAMP LIBRE Festival : a great way to kick off the new 2024-2025 season.
In residence at the Centre national de la Danse (CN D de Pantin), SUZANNE opened the door of her studio on November 17, 2024 to present a work in progress on her next piece, TO LIFE, a dance piece for 7 performers.
“À voir et à danser” (a blog dedicated to the dance), which has been following the work of TO LIFE since its creation, took the opportunity to write a chronicle/portfolio on this work in progress, which is due to premiere in August 2024.
“Une gestuelle se dessine et s’affine qui n’en évacue pas pour autant la polysémie possible du geste. Des regards plus appuyés, derrière soi, ou dans des diagonales hautes et basses dessinent un espace plus vaste que celui d’un simple couloir de marche. Celui d’un monde qu’on abandonne et un autre en devenir ?”
https://avoiretadanser.fr/to-life-suzanne/
Last Friday 13th and Saturday 14th January, SUZANNE had the great pleasure of performing a 20 minutes “workstep” of its future piece TO LIFE, for the “shared stage” OPEN SPACE #1 at the Etoile du nord theater in Paris. It has been an occasion for SUZANNE to try the very beginnings of its brand new creation before a fully booked auditorium and to gather the first thoughts impressions.
It is the author of the dance dedicated blog “A voir et à danser” (To see and to dance) that first released a very nicely written article displaying also photographs from the performance.
« En l’espace d’une vingtaine de minutes, par touches successives, les contours d’un monde futuriste, voire peut-être même post-apocalyptique, semble se dessiner. Une humanité marche vers son destin dont on ne sait encore, à ce stade de la création, ce qu’il en adviendra. Suzanne fait de la marche la métaphore d’un acte de résistance au sein de laquelle semblent pouvoir se reconstituer des formes de solidarités. »
https://blog.avoiretadanser.fr/2023/01/to-life-de-suzanne-au-festival-open.html
On September 21, during the 9th edition of AICA France Prize for Art Critics, SUZANNE was presented by the independent curator Léo Marin. An oral presentation inspired by the PechaKucha principle : 20 images each commented for 20 seconds for a total duration of 6 minutes 40 seconds. A performative format that applies to art criticism that offers the possibility for a large audience artists and works that have not yet receive the attention they deserve.
Léo Marin takes the gamble of presenting a group of performers, dancers, a multiple body in an exercice where artist generally choose one artist or sometimes a group of artists and artworks. It is also an opportunity for him to establish its own collaboration with SUZANNE over time while integrating it into the continuity of his favorite research subject: insularity.
Under the direction of Sylvia Varagne, the first edition of L’Appel du Large festival offered to thirty artists, including SUZANNE, new meeting spaces between the seafront, boards, Pompeian baths and public spaces.
It was also (the immense) chance, after a post-containment 2.0 period, to reinvest the public space and once again offer curious passers-by and a few tourists STATU, the company’s first creation, which does not had not been performed since June 2019 in Vilnius as part of the Vilnius Art Fair. In a context of a global pandemic which has limited the distribution and exchange opportunities for artists, meetings between the public and artists and artists were the sinews of war for this first edition of L’ Appel du Large.
Despite an edition marked by the pandemic and the closure before midnight of large numbers of museums, institutions and associated sites, SUZANNE has succeeded in showing to the parisian audience an unprecedented creation combining monumental installation, live video projection, minimalist movements and polyphonic singing. “CANON“, presented in la Cour d’Honneur of the Musée des Archives Nationales during the Nuit Blanche, attracted the attention of the magazine “Toute La Culture” and came out in the heart of Eliaz Ait Seddick.
