One day while walking in a pine forest, I found myself hitting a branch against a tree, and it struck me that this action had a strong resonance with the act of flogging, a common BDSM practice and a personal passion. I was struck by this gesture and it’s similarity to the act of whipping or impact play in the consent-oriented context of BDSM, something that I was also practicing with humans at the time. Humans in the capitalocene are imbricated with Earth in ways that mix deep love, material dependance, the basic violence of existing in a food chain, and the horrific violence of unbridled extraction. I began to wonder if the affects of BDSM might be a particularly powerful lens to look at the relationship between humans and their ecosystems.
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The solo Deep Cuts will deal in the sensations and body states of erotic violence. Rather than engaging in the imagery of BDSM that one might associate with certain costumes, objects, or aesthetics, I engage with the body of BDSM, the body that generously receives or doles out pain, and the states of anger, ecstasy, and exhaustion that might come with it. The body of Deep Cuts is a body that hits - hits itself, hits objects, hits the floor, hits the furniture, hits to get angry, hits to get percussive. I am interested in a state between pleasure and rage, which I experienced while hitting this tree, and which I have also experienced on the dance floor, in a wrestling match, while flogging a lover, and while running through the forest. A sensation that can’t be expressed in words, only danced and shouted.
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Cast
Concept and performance Bryan Campbell
Light design and scenography Bruno Faucher
Sound design Aria de la Celle
Guitar Geoffrey le Gouaziou
Dramaturgic assistance Lea Rivière
Technical director Géraldine Michel
Assistant to the creation Oscar Houtin
Latin translation Marion Dapsens
Camera operation Foxie 2000, Gaëtan Rusquet
Music Ludwig van Beethoven, Symphonie No. 6 Op. 68, Simon Rattle et le Wiener Philharmoniker ; Carl Orff, “In Trutina” ; Franz Liszt, “Années de Pèlerinage : 1ère Année : Suisse,” Alfred Brendel
Executive production Météores
Administration and production Charlotte Giteau
Production Sandrine Barrasso
Production and touring management Anaïs Guilleminot
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Thanks Katerina Andreou, Sandrine Barrasso, Florence Dire, Sophie Guisset, Madeleine Samain
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Production
Les SUBS – lieu vivant d’expériences artistiques, Lyon ; Montpellier Danse in the frame of the residency at the Agora, cité internationale de la danse, with the support of the Fondation BNP Paribas; Pôle-Sud CDCN - Strasbourg; Next Festival
With funding from the DRAC Ile de France
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Studio space : Cndc Angers, Atelier des Marches / Le Bouscat, Le Pacifique CDCN Grenoble - Auvergne - Rhône-Alpes, La Briqueterie CDCN du Val-de-Marne, CN D Centre national de la danse Pantin, La Place de la danse CDCN Toulouse Occitanie, Buda Kunstencentrum, Ballet du Nord CCN Roubaix Hauts de France, Le Carreau du Temple, La Ménagerie de Verre.
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Open studios
March 9, 2022 – LES SUBS, Lyon
March 17, 2022 – Agora / Montpellier danse
November 10, 2022 – La Briqueterie CDCN du Val-de-Marne,
April 28, 2023 - Kunstencentrum Buda, Courtrai (Belgium)
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Touring
May 25 & 26, 2023 - LES SUBS - Lyon - premiere
September 1st, 2023 - Les Bazis, Sainte-Croix-Volvestre, in the frame of "Forêêêêêt aux Bazis"
September 9 , 2023 - Festival Plastique Danse Flore, Versailles
November 10 & 11, 2023 - Festival NEXT / Kunstencentrum Buda, Courtrai (Belgium)
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