“Displaced” gestures is a choreographic project dealing with the vocabulary of professional gestures carried out in the context of work. It is conceived for young adults finishing their education in technical or agricultural colleges.

In 2016, “Displaced” gestures took place in theEdgard Pisani College in Montreuil-Bellay (49) with a mixed group of 30 students specializing in wine cultivation, landscaping and service to individuals and territories (Vignes et vin, aménagements paysagers, SAPAT).

SAPAT, V&V and AP programs prepare young adults to use this first tool, which is their own body, and to rely on it while in contact with other bodies and objects or with the environment. Often unconscious of their corporeality, these young professionals involve their bodies in games whose mechanisms often do not understand.

In their professional lives, they will sooner or later be confronted with the notions of correct and displacedgestures. They need to be aware of what their motions can imply, and how can they be read, misinterpreted or playfully twisted around. It is important to understand how gestures affect ways in which one can get into physical contact with the environment and what impact one can have on the surrounding world.

The project “Displaced” gestures, whichis a week-long workshop finishing with a public performance, proposes to help observe the body and how it enters into contact with other bodies, with the environment, and to examine in a playful way the tools, the circumstances and the emotional contexts that accompany such encounters.

The workshop is built in four stages.

1. Art is a game

In order to understand the idea of ​​an artistic project that derives from everyday activities, students are invited to play a game of displacement/dislocation. 

A taste for the shift and changing perspectives is necessary for any artistic work. Therefore one has to start with shifting the way one looks at his or her daily life, surroundings, rituals, mechanics …

2. Observe, become aware

Each day, the workshop begins with a body awareness session: observing the body without judging, exploring its ability to move and communicate, noticing how it becomes a source, as well as a repository of sensations and emotions.

3. Move on

The time comes to separate the gestures from their effectiveness and the body from its functionality.  This happens by changing various parameters: removal of the body from the context in which it usually operates and placing it somewhere unexpected – one plants wine in the dojo, or the gestures performed on other bodies will be performed on the machines – caressing a tractor, hugging a tree, eventually altering the rhythm of the actions and entering the field of dance.

4. Compose

From all the experiments carried out throughout the week, the students are given the opportunity to compose their own piece of dance. This last challenge makes it possible to focus on the issues related to the re-presentation space.

Partners
This project is carried out in partnership with the Art'ur network (network of artistic action within the public agricultural education), the DRAC of the Pays de la Loire and the FRAC Carquefou (Frac des Pays-de-la-Loire).
The workshop took place in 2016 with the following schedule:
- first meeting with students on November 12, 2015
- workshops from February 29 to March 4  2016
- performance - Friday March 4 , 2016

Pupil’s Words (link to Eva’s text in French)
Blog about the Displaced Gestures by the Lycée Edgard Pisani in Montreuil-Bellay
General Blog

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Photo : ©Agnieszka Ryszkiewicz