Joie #wouaj

A dancer, choreographer and teacher, Jonas Chéreau researches and mediates the component elements of his creations. Activating joy, presenting it to be seen, to be felt: can this be done on a stage, without portraying or illustrating it? And also: who, through emotion or movement, initiates what? The exploration arising from such questioning naturally brings about laughter, less as a response to humour – in spite of contagion – than as a driving force in audio form, a vector of loosening that by extension produces a totally new presence. The mirroring nature of the title is telling: Joie #wouaj comes and goes between emotional extremes, pivots and oscillates, until it embraces the opposites. If, in the words of Deleuze, “power demands sad bodies”, this work adopts joy as a basic principle and practice of resistance. “This is a call for lightness, a bid to counteract gravity.”