Lecture by Xavier Le Roy
7.30pm, Friday 7 May 2010
Martin Segal Theatre Center, CUNY Graduate Center
365 Fifth Avenue, NY NY 10016
Admission FREE – first come first served
Xavier Le Roy (b.1963, France) is one of the leading figures of what has been dubbed European ‘conceptual choreography’. In his solo The Rite of Spring (2007), for example, he conducts Stravinsky’s composition in front of – and using – the audience, mixing the brooding gesturality of the classical orchestra conductor with the mischievous delight of bedroom karaoke; the finale is an exhilarating overlay of Nijinsky, Pina Bausch, and air guitar leg kicks.
Originally trained as a molecular biologist, Le Roy switched to dance in 1991 and since then has developed an approach that has often been compared to the work of his contemporary and collaborator Jérôme Bel. Both choreographers tend to address the conventions of dance as an institution, experiment with modes of audience address, and work with everyday or unorthodox modes of bodily movement. Le Roy’s expansion of the field of dance to incorporate the strangeness and idiosyncrasy of the human body, together with his emphasis on research and process, put his work in an important dialogue with contemporary theatre and visual art performance.
This is the first time that Xavier Le Roy has given a lecture about his work in New York; it is a rare opportunity to hear him speak and show video clips of his key works.
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