PISUM SATIVUM / Karine Ponties (BE/F)

performance created by the Belgian choreographer, the performers studying at DIFA-JAMU and visual artists
performance length: 50 min
physical theatre
no language barrier
Everybody hides in the den... The one who went out brings back trouble and upsetting thoughts. This is a play dedicated to the glory of aberrant mutations and failures. “Pisum Sativum”, a cave chant from the Hairy Age.

The Physical Theatre School of the JAMU Academy in Brno has invited the respected and award-winning French dancer, performer and choreographer Karine Ponties to prepare a new performance with its third-year students. Also joining the project are supportive artists, perfomers, graphic artists, set and light designers from both the academic and non-academic spheres.

In this work Karine Ponties once again searches for the hidden yet undeniable bodily imagination, in both people and animals. During rehearsals a common theme arose, obsession: the presence in us of a hidden, denied, magic connection between archaic modes of behaviour, forms, desires, and the contemporary world.

Ponties supervises the work as if she were writing a novel - gradually she allows herself to fall into the peculiarities of the performers and characters, finding further inspiration in drawings and the view of those drawings as well as all possible memories and worlds.

Karine Ponties
Karine Ponties was born in France in 1967. Her foray into dance began with studies at the Juan Tena and Ramon Soler dance schools in Barcelona, and culminated in her matriculation from Maurice Bejart’s Mudra school in Brussels in 1986.
She has worked as a performer with several companies, notably Frédéric Flamand, Michèle Noiret, Nicole Mossoux/Patrick Bonté and Pierre Droulers among others, in addition to founding Dame de Pic/Cie Karine Ponties in 1995. In 1996 Ponties was honored with the laureate of the 4th Edition of Les Pépinières européennes for young artists.
In her nearly 15 years of choreographing for the company, she has created over twenty works including commissions for the Helsinki Theater Dance department, Het Muziek Lod in Ghent, the D.C.M. Foundation in Bucharest, Montréal Danse, La Petite Fabrique in Paris, Transdance Europe 03-06; she was most recently one of 7 European Union choreographers selected to participate in the EU-Russian contemporary dance project, INTRADANCE (2010).

Collaborations:
Ponties’ award-winning collaborations with visual artist Thierry Van Hasselt (Brutalis: 2002 Société des Auteurs et Compositeurs Dramatiques [SACD] choreographic prize; and Holeulone: named 2007 best dance performance in French-speaking Belgium) highlight the company’s commitment to interdisciplinary exploration. Other collaborations include composer Jan Kuijken and Lod (Les Taroupes 2000, Capture d’un caillot 2001, Brutalis 2002), composer Dominique Pauwels and Lod (Le Chant d’amour du grand singe 2005, Mi non Sabir 2004, Desirabilis 2004, Holeulone 2006, Boreas 2007), visual artist Lawrence Malstaf (Boreas 2007), visual artist and illustrator Stefano Ricci (Des Taureaux dans la tête 2007, the Scarecrow Cycle 2008-2011, including Babil, Havran, and Fidèle à l'éclair, Benedetto Pacifico and Humus vertebra 2009), and illustrator Beatrice Alemagna (Lamali Lokta
This work is created by Karine Ponties, with the students of the Department of Clown, Stage and Film creation of the JAMU Academy, with visual artists and other performers.

The project is realised within the project "Innovation of the Dramatic and Music Art Study Programmes of JAMU in the Field of Artistic Outcomes". The project is co-financed by the European Social Fund and the state budget of the Czech Republic.

www.physicaltheatreschool-jamu.com

Creation of this project is made possible thanks to a collaboration between the Theatre Faculty of the JAMU Academy Brno, Compagnie Dame de pic, The Studio Marta Theatre in Brno, the French Institute in Prague and Wallonie-Bruxelles International.

The performance in Prague takes places in collaboration with Motus, producers of the Alfred ve dvoře Theatre.

Photo: Aude Martin Photo: Aude Martin Photo: Aude Martin