In addition to creating shows and touring, the association … & alters provides a set of talks and film screenings. The association is committed to enriching thought on the art of choreography and to the transmission of its own sources and working processes to ensure that its creative work and reinterpretations help to create a fertile environment for exploration, research, and ideas.
The work presented on stage or in situ is often preceded by a long, in-depth research phase, primarily using archives, assembling documentation, and decoding scores.
The talks allow … & alters to shed light on the sources and processes used in its work, which usually remain in the shadows, and to describe the historic context of the works. By inviting guest speakers, including researchers in aesthetics, dance history, anthropology and philosophy, … & alters is also able to open up a field of reflection and debate offering additional enlightenment, and allowing for deeper and more extended investigations of the issues explored by the performances.
They also create an opportunity for exchanging ideas directly with the public through questions and answers and a sharing of ideas.
Based on decoding and reinterpreting the Danse Macabre (1935) by the German choreographer Sigurd Leeder, which is central to Anne Collod’s show Parlement des Invisibles, Anne introduces Rudolf Laban’s system for movement notation and sheds light on the choreography underpinning German dance in the 1930s. Drawing on rich iconography, she also presents the fascinating history of the danse macabre (dance of the dead) in Europe and how the dance embodied links between the living and the dead. She also reveals the creative phase of Parlement des invisibles by sharing film and sound materials.
