Brise-lames on French television

In June 2020, Aurelie Dupont, the director of The Paris Opera Ballet is facing a disastrous consequence of the Covid 19 crisis. The 2019-2020 season is hugely impacted by the crisis, and the main direction of the opera decides to use this uncertain time to renovate the two main stages of The Paris Opera. She also decides though, to create a series of performances on a stage built in front of the iron curtain – directly on top of the orchestra pit of Opera Garnier. One of these programs is named “Create Today”.

Four contemporary choreographers (Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Tess Voelker, Medhi Kerkouche, and Damien Jalet ) are invited to create a piece for the dancers of the Opera, working with the very limited technical conditions this new stage offers, and with a limited amount of time to both conceive of, and execute the new creation. Damien Jalet creates “Brise-Lames” (wave-breaker); a piece for 9 dancers working in close collaboration with long-standing partner and dancer Aimilios Arapoglou, renowned visual artist JR, pianist and composer Koki Nakano, and lighting designer Fabiana Piccioli. Unfortunately, a second French lockdown is set in place just 5 days before the premiere, programmed the 5th of November, which prevents the shows to occur.

The performance though, was filmed by a French television crew and resulted in a film directed by Louise Narboni in close collaboration with Jalet. “Brise-lames” will premiere on FRANCE 5, in prime time the 28th of January 2020.

Find more about brise-lames.