Soulcornercreated in 2016

julia christ CIRCO AEREO ASSOCIATION W

Again the bell and again you and your opponent. So evenly matched it’s impossible to see your opponent is you ... Joyce Carol Oates

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Soulcorner the corner of the soul

Soulcorner is a show created and performed by Julia Christ, within which mingle the arts and the media: danced movement, balancing, music and singing, manipulation, art ...

Soulcorner questions the real motives of the struggle. To whom is it really directed? Spectators will find their own answers, their own solutions. We need a ghost to help us discover reality with this oscillatory dynamic between consistencies and inconsistencies… In an abstract ring, a disturbing and mysterious space, a plural woman evolves, on a quest to find this inner adversary. Gloves, chalk, bandage, stool, ropes... Boxing decorum is stripped and reinvested. In a minimalist approach, here the natural body translates what lurks in the corner of the soul.

Created in 2016 Duration: 45 minutes Audience: All audiences

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I am a dancer, I am a circassian, I am German, I am a woman...

I am an author and performer of Soulcorner that goes beyond these categorisations; the writing and staging of this show were nourished by my experiences and my desires which are stored in the corner of my soul...

My childhood was bathed in the world of craft and this rapidly promoted my fascination for manual production, specifically carpentry; studying art was a logical continuity. Objects, material, the costumes that I think up and design for my shows are such solid elements for narration. The use of voice as a constituent of storytelling meets the same logic, the same evidence. Singer in a female rock group at age 18, I finally granted my wish to inject singing in creating shows with “Pleurage et Scintillement” 20 years later, and again today with Soulcorner.

The trigger for the creation of Soulcorner was the discovery of Joyce Carol Oates’ book entitled “De la Boxe”. This writer opened a door for me, she found the words that I wish to express with my tools, my body; to translate my connection to this sport I am passionate about: boxing.

As a child, Mohammed Ali was my hero, my idol... I was fascinated by this huge athlete who knew how to make boxing a means of expression, depicting the battle well beyond the boundaries of the ring. Like him, I believe that “the boxing match is the image of collective aggression”; but boxing for me is also strangely beautiful, emotionally captivating and absolutely physical. In Soulcorner, I wish to express these divergent impressions and translate their poetry with my own weapons…

Paul Klee is one of the most important artists for me. I admire him for his graphic approach to minimalism and accuracy concerning the essentials. He refines, until the major becomes visible. I registered the same approach when writing Soulcorner.

Julia CJrist

My soul wanders alone in a corner, searching

for another with envy, relentlessly, this opponent within me.

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boxingEvery boxing match is a story, a drama without words, unique and very condensed. This does not mean that it has no text or language, that it is brutal, primitive or unable to express anything, but that the text is improvised in action... The words of the commentators on the edge the ring give this show narrative unity, nevertheless, boxing as a performance is much more akin to dance or music than to that narration.

Reading the book “De la Boxe” by Joyce Carol Oates was a trigger for writing Soulcorner. This American author has managed in this essay on boxing, to put words to the relationship that Julia Christ has with the sport. She pinpoints the essence of what triggers the fascination and aversion it raises for the practitioner and the watcher. For her, boxing is primitive, like birth, death or physical love. Boxing is as much a show as a sporting game with codes and protocols, as an organic experience, brutal and sensual.

In Soulcorner everything is boxing. The entrance of the athletes, the gong to mark the start, the commentary, the rounds and times, the recovery, the warming up... the decorum of the boxing match is reclaimed to create a virtuous cycle back to chaos, to a consecration.

The gestures and movements of the boxer, be he in combat or resting is reinjected into the danced movements, physical positions or balancing, creating an original choreography.

Soulcorner draws out implicitly the physical and mental pathway of the boxer, dancer, balance artist that is Julia Christ..

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this opponent withinSoulcorner comes across as a solo but the phantom of a second protagonist is omnipresent. This adversary is the object of the quest, of the drama unfolding before our eyes. It is the representation of our inner exploration, our inner construction of our constant quest to fight, to understand or to accept this double.

A sequence of pictures depicts this progressive research, these meetings between the self and this other. Originally, a fight needs an opponent. The physical absence of an adversary is one of the essential aspects of this show. This absence is significant. This invisible, misty, insubstantial and immaterial (important/essential) opponent becomes an antagonist and an accomplice. The adversary who appears and disappears under several vectors of existence. If it is shown graphically, it also materialises as the physical presence of a masked accomplice who joins her on stage. Julia Christ can also call upon extras with whom she practices before each performance, the extras having the capability to embody a duplicate of the opponent.

This allegory of boxing and the opponent is motivated by the fascination Julia Christ has for life and the posture of Mohamed Ali, this fabulous athlete who approached his personal and political struggles as he did his fights, constantly navigating between philosophy and provocation.

“The fight is won or lost far away from witnesses - behind the lines, in the gym and out there on the road, long before I dance under those lights.” – Mohamed Ali

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these female archetypesWithout developing a feminist discourse, Julia Christ uses her own journey as a woman by playing a sequence of different female archetypes. She explores equally what defines the woman she is as those who inspire her. Here, the woman is not shown in a sexual or maternal prism, she is plural, she is complex, she is constantly changing.

She is the ostentatious queen looking for recognition, with power which borders on the absurd. It is an ally who encourages and supports. She is a voice of the past which charms and softens. She is an athlete who is as powerful as she is weakened. She is a fighter who gives as many blows as she receives. She is a philosopher who enlightens. She is a sometimes sensual sometimes asexual body. She is an opponent.

The journey of these female figures can be felt as a concentrate of a woman‘s life in all its complexity. In this voluntary fight that is Soulcorner, she carries and plays it pegged message: “we can, if we wish, reinvent ourselves again and again.”

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minimalism praiseIf the boxing match is used as a metaphor of an inner fight, Julia Christ develops above all a metonymic approach to the subject. The language here is short and striking. The form becomes the content, the artist becomes the work, the object becomes the person; to make visible the essential.

The blueprint of staging allows to experience the whole by showing details chosen as representative, it causes the mind of the watcher to invoke their own imagination.

Julia Christ follows the minimalist approach of the German painter Paul Klee. His picture Guter Auftritt (can be translated as Good presentation) is central to the subject. It symbolises the opponent, round head, naive looks, crude lines. This design evokes a certain fragility that may inspire intrigue or even anxiety depending on its mode of presentation. Depending on the moment and their own representation, each person will be able to carry their own reading of the character, an elderly lady? A child ? A ghost?... This “round headed” adversary is viewed in various forms, the drawing will become the phantom, living body and then totem.

Soulcorner proposes an evolution of the presentation space (that of the ring) injected with traces of the past, memories, fantasy to go towards a progressive construction of a “concrete” space.

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Objects, materials, sounds, lights are all elements that support and reveal the narrative. But Soulcorner also offers viewers to experience and feel a plethora of sensory, visual and sonorous experiences. The scene sequence is conceived as a composition of pictorial works of art and plastic installations in motion.

The bare, square stage area symbolises the boxing ring. It is the place of action, of the fight, of the meeting. A corner of the ring is highlighted, it is the space of rest and return to oneself. If the ring represents the soul, the soul also has its rest area: the corner of the soul. The backstage area is the place where we come from, where we are going. This invisible place, this secret locker. The crowd, accomplice and observer, occupies this sacred place that justifies the existence of this ring.

Beyond highlighting a show, the use of lights has a special importance in Soulcorner. It reveals the shadow that sometimes is confused with the body, extending it. She draws the perimeter of the ring and of the corner and makes us guess what is hidden. Mobile projectors bring to life this light whose beam is directed on purpose or randomly, like the movements of the boxer.

The singing and music are composed of a part, to support the dramatic aspect of the boxing match while adding in a comforting energy. For example, the show begins with a cover of “eye of the tiger”, title track of the leading boxing film (Rocky). Here, this track is interpreted gently. The show is a back and forth between music made to sounds like extensions of the graphic installations, and of the direct and organic sounds coming from the ring: breaths, falls... The silences are chosen to give focus to moments of intimacy. As with projectors, microphones are also included as key elements of the decorum of boxing.

Boxing attributes are extracted throughout the show to be utilised in their first use and then diverted to enhance and strengthen its primordial necessities. They become scenery, props, costumes, tackle, they are central to the show: gloves, chalk, slates, stools, bandages, hoods, sponge...

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julia christJulia Christ develops a personal language of movement, tinged with dance, acrobatics and hand balance. She trained at the Superior School of Circus Arts in Brussels which she completed in 2001. She acquired strong technical bases and expanded her artistic palette.

After Calcinculo by the Feria Musica Cie, she began in 2003 a collaboration with dancer/choreographer Gilles Baron with “Droit Comme La Pluie” (“Right As Rain”), “Oozing Tears” and the “Animal Attraction” and several other duets. From there on, contemporary dance played a more important role in her work. She experimented with it from the angle of contact dance, in duet with Jean-Baptiste André or even with Kazue Ikeda in Berlin.

In 2009, she worked on her solo Bambula and included artist Sashiko Yoshimura. This creation offers an idea of the body as a souvenir container, the receptacle of the continuous, interior battles of a divided self. In 2010, she collaborated once again with Jean-Baptiste André on “Qu’après en être revenu” then again in 2013 as co-author of “Pleurage et Scintillement”.

For the creation of her new show Soulcorner, Julia Christ is a prizewinner of the CircusNext 2014 program. She has benefited from much European support, including the W/Jean-Baptiste André Association and Circo Aereo/Jani Nuutinen who are accompanying the Soulcorner project. The premieres took place in May 2016 with the Sirque - National Pole Cirque de Nexon (Limousin, FR), co-producer of the show.

equilibrist dancer boxer

handy woman singer

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the teamJulia Christ performance, design, scenography Muriel Pierre stage accomplice Michel Cerda/Cie Le Vardaman, assisted by Catherine Semat dramaturgy Guilhem Lacroux musical creation Jérémie Cusenier light and stage management Frédéric Peugeot sound creation Charlotte Gillard costumes

productionSoulcorner is carried by Circo Aereo/Jani Nuutinen & the W/Jean-Baptiste André Association.

Julia Christ benefited from European support from CircusNext et from Franco-German funding from Transfabrik for the living show with the W/Jean-Baptiste André Association; and aid companionship with the DGCA et the DRAC Limousin with Circo Aereo/Jani Nuutinen.

coproductionLe Sirque – Le Sirque - National Pole of Circus Arts Nexon (Limousin, FR)

support and residencesCircusNext, European support system coordinated by Jeunes Talents Cirque Europe and supported by the European Commission.

residences: Le Sirque – National Pole of Circus Arts Nexon (Limousin, FR) | Théâtre de l’Agora, national stage in Evry Essonne (Evry, FR) | Katakomben (Berlin, DE) | Espace Catastrophe (Brussels, BE) | La Brèche, National Pole Of Circus Arts in Basse-Normandie (Cherbourg-Octeville, FR) | Subtopia (Norsborg, SE) | The Mégisserie, Stage created for the arts, the Imaginair (Saint-Junien, FR) | Circus Akademie Cabuwazi, Grenzkultur gGmbh (Berlin, DE) | Espace Périphérique (Ville de Paris-Parc de la Villette, FR) | Jean Lurçat Theatre, National stage of Aubusson (Aubusson, FR) | Fabrik Heeder (Krefeld, DE).

Thanks to La Muse en Circuit, National Musical Creation Center (Alfortville, FR), Theatre de l’Union - National Drama Centre (Limoges, FR)

photosTony Melvin | circlemotion.com

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contactsproduction – administrationNathalie Flecchia | Circo Aereo/Jani Nuutinen +33 (0)6 58 95 72 11 | diffusion@circoaereo.net

production – tourMuriel Pierre | Association W/Jean-Baptiste André +33 (0)6 99 54 67 99 | muriel.association.w@gmail.com

diffusion – cultural actionsJean-Philippe Raymond +33 (0)6 46 84 68 02 | jean-philippe.raymond@julia-christ.com

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about Soulcornercultural actionsThe mediation project that accompanies the show targets a fixed group of seven to ten participants: amateur practitioners (theatre, dance, circus...), students of the Fine Arts, students and apprentices, groups of women in integration... Depending on the audience, the time spent and the pedagogical approach will differ but the structure of the project will remain the same. According to the identified group, it will be necessary to be accompanied by a person in charge of mediation for all or part of the project.

The objectives to the project are:

• To raise awareness of the artistic approach of Julia Christ, of Paul Klee• To allow the experience of the plateau under professional conditions• Involve an ephemeral troupe in the creation of a key scene of the show• Address artistic creation through the aspect as well as through the body• Program Soulcorner on the territory

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It will roll out in different steps:1. Construction of masks using the approach of Paul Klee “Guter Auftritt”2. Raising of awareness of the hidden game3. Creation of the “chorus of opponents” for a Soulcorner scene 4. Participation in the show for some participants

An example of the schedule:Step 1: a half day to one whole day (3 days before the show)

In a minimalist approach inspired by the work of Paul Klee, each participant will have made a mask depicting the abstraction of their own face.

Step 2: a half day to one whole day (2 days before the show) With a mask inspired by “Guter Auftritt” by Paul Klee, participants will have constructed and mastered some choreographic phrases in masked play.

Step 3: a half day or an evening (the day before the show) All or some of the participants incorporate ephemeral creation of a scene from Soulcorner. The timing confirms a kind of double reality, shows an “unreal plateau” where ghostly representations of the adversary evolve.

Step 4: a half-day or evening (the day of the show) The group of participants play in a scene from Soulcorner. Review time can be considered.

Other forms of cultural actions are possible:• Workshops for awareness of boxing movements, balances• Workshops for mask construction in the manner of Paul Klee• Public meetings

ContactJean-Philippe Raymond phone +33 (0)6 46 84 68 02 jean-philippe.raymond@julia-christ.com