Agrégat

There is a dancer, a block of yellow Post-It notes, a Sharpie, and an open, completely lit space. The dancer, Thusnelda Mercy, will compose and build her family tree in front of us.

On each Post-It, she will write the name of someone from her family, living or dead … giving us his or her name, profession, perhaps an anecdote …
There are those who are close, who are unknown, or the black sheep of the family … those whose first or last names have been forgotten.

The starting point for the piece is the simple statement that we inherit both strengths and weaknesses from our ancestors.
Based on work by certain psychoanalysts who introduced the concept of psycho-genealogy. Among them Habram Torok, Anne Ancelin Shuteznberger and Didier Dumas – we can lay out an entire family history.

The piece is played directly to the audience. It is intended to resonate with us, to make us aware of something essential in all of us: a family history whose forces guide us throughout our lives, be it consciously or unconsciously.

“For this solo I wanted to choose a dancer with a certain experience in familial transmission, allowing her to participate fully in the process and to find her own interior resonances with its issues.

I therefore asked Thusnelda Mercy to help me create and perform this piece. She is currently dancing with Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch; in fact she grew up there, as both her parents were dancers in the company. Her own dancing is imbued with this powerful heritage and with her desire to explore these ideas further.”

Artistic direction : Lucas Manganelli

Dancer : Thusnelda Mercy

Literaly adviser : David Wahl

Artistic assistant : Thomas Gonzalez

Music by Hugo Oudin

Production : Taé i
Coproduction Les Indépendances
With the support of La Ménagerie de Verre as part of Studiolabs,
And Le Forum – Scène conventionnée de Blanc-Mesnil.