Business is Business

Presents at the same time the most prosaic and banal life at the office and a corporeal expression pushed to the extremes of choreographic abstraction. In this tension between the two, a new terrain is discovered: a body that is poetic and narrative. Beautiful work.

Premier.fr, Marie Plantin

This physical narration that clearly exposes the heart and the spirit; this delirious “thing” that is clear and precise, mixed with daring acrobatics, gymnastics, and gesture that whips through space with a technique that is so fluid that one forgets to recognize it.

LesTroisCoups.com, Sylvie Beurtheret

With its latest creation “Business is Business,” the company Pas de Dieux plunges into the tragic-comic world of business. The setting: A young company, ordinary, full of hope and creativity. A non-descript office with tables, chairs, computers, and telephones. The project: a banal step-stool, a Product to be sold at all costs. Around this step-stool, an incessant ballet of employers, bosses, and cleaning workers reveal a large palate of colorful personalities.

The daily lives of these people are nothing but the parts of a machine that are timed by the oscillating rhythm of the market. The costumes, the gestures, and the facial expressions conform to the social conventions that are respected in order to achieve the objectives. Each, consciously or not, accomplish his task to bring life to this grand machine.

What does it mean to be ready to sacrifice oneself to sell a Product? Sooner or later, the idealisms decay into cynicisms of bosses as profit becomes the moral king. How does inspiration, the dream of the quotidian man of wanting to retrieve the beauty, the sublime, the poetry in this daily grind become possible?

Our Work Process

Through corporeal research and play, Leela Alaniz directs the actors/dancers to find in the creative process the “how to do” rather than “what to do,” “the details” rather than the “the big” movements in order so that “the extra-ordinary” surges from the “ordinary”.

This show is a result of corporeal research inspired by techniques of Corporeal Mime of Etienne Decroux, of Theatre Anthropology and acrobatics. The choreographies derive from the individual corporeal expression of each actor/dancer and from their interactive play.

INFO

Genres: Physical Theatre, Mime, Dance

Public: general admission, ages 7+

Duration of show: 70 minutes

Direction and choreography: Leela Alaniz

With: Arianna Fernández, André Mubarack, Won Kim (Latest Version)

With: Yuka Fukushima, Sergi Emiliano, Won Kim (First Version)

Music composition and sound: François Blaignan and Paul Mindy

Corporeal Rhythm and Percussion: Paul Mindy

Costumes: Cie. Pas de Dieux

Lighting: Paul Divel

poster credit: Matt Cioffi www.mattcioffi.com

TOUR DATES

  • BE Fest, Birmingham, UK: June 30 to July 3, 2010
  • Théâtre du Lierre, Paris: May 2010
  • Mosta Internacional de Teatro, Porto, Portugal: November 22, 2009
  • 12th Festival Internacional COS de Mim i Teatre Gestual, Reus, Barcelona: October 2009
  • Festival Entrez dans la danse, Paris, 1 juin 2008
  • Festival Devant de La Scène MJC Mercoeur, Paris 25-28 avril 2008