Empire

Can we look at an empire from its fall, when it may not be quite over?

Empire, a term both total and vacillating. The word evokes vertigo, excess and, of course, the authority that always accompanies it. La Zampa seizes the imaginary power of this term with six dancers and a musician on stage. First, there’s the space. Twenty-five pale green tatami mats form an irregular, delimited geometric shape, on which the trajectories, twists, rolls and suspensions of six dancer-passengers are inscribed.Empire becomes a playground, a plastic and choreographic intention to thwart domination, in a group. Judo and English contredanse, La Zampa’s incongruous allies for this new creation, imprint their gestures, slowing down the falls, adjusting contacts, disturbing lines and turning their loss of balance into moments of invention and relationship. To the enveloping pulse of Marc Sens’ looped, harmonized and strummed guitars, this continuous flow of pearly-colored bodies is tinged with brilliance, ruffles and flowery crowns as the dance becomes electrified. Empire begins with the body standing up and looking at the world. Empire is a matter of perspective and landscape… In a continuum of falls, surges and suspensions, La Zampa advances in one of its most luminous collective scores.

Credits
Choreography: Magali Milian, Romuald Luydlin
Assistant and artistic collaborator: Laurie Bellanca
Dramaturgy: Marie Reverdy
Collaboration and interpretation: Alice Bachy, Joseph Kraft, Romuald Luydlin, Magali Milian, Camilo Sarasa Molina and Anna Vanneau
Live music: Marc sens
Set design: Antoine Desnos, Magali Milian, Romuald Luydlin, Denis Rateau
Costumes: Violette Angé
Lighting: Denis Rateau
Sound design and direction: Valérie Leroux

Production
Producer: La Zampa
Coproducers : Scène Nationale d’ALBI-Tarn, L’Empreinte Scène Nationale Brive – Tulle, Le Parvis Scène Nationale Tarbes-Pyrénées, Charleroi danse – Centre chorégraphique de la Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles, La Place de la Danse CDCN Toulouse-Occitanie, ICI-CCN Montpellier-Occitanie, La Scène Nationale du Sud-Aquitain – Bayonne, La Maison Danse CDCN Uzès Gard Occitanie, KLAP Maison pour la danse à Marseille (finalization residency 2025)
Residency support : L’Usine CNAREP Tournefeuille Toulouse Métropole, Charleroi danse – Centre chorégraphique de la Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles, La place de la Danse CDCN Toulouse-Occitanie, Mairie de Durfort 09, Dojo de Lézat-sur-Lèze, ICI-CCN Montpellier-Occitanie, Châteauvallon-Liberté scène nationale, KLAP Maison pour la danse à Marseille, Ville de Tournefeuille, Mairie de Carla Bayle 09
Partners: (Transmission of repertoire) Creation of the piece IMPERIO with dancers from the Compañía Nacional de Danza del Ecuador as part of the La Plaza de la Danza festival organized by the Alliance Française de Quito and La Place de la Danse, in partnership with the Compañía Nacional de Danza del Ecuador, La Zampa and Teatro Capitol
Thanks to Guillaume and Serge Bertrand

La Zampa is subsidized by the Direction Régionale des Affaires Culturelles Occitanie as part of its “Aide aux compagnies conventionnées” program, by the Région Occitanie / Pyrénées Méditerranée, and by the Département de l’Ariège.