Islands

The Show

Carolyn Carlson has never stopped going from group creation and ballet to soli, either for herself or for dancers who inspire her profoundly. To her, it constitutes the essential form of the choreographic work. It is a moment of direct link to dance, a possibility to go back to oneself and a search for the ultimate tone of the unique and pure gesture. Irremediably the choreographer goes back to the solo, as a quest for her own essence. In a more and more talkative and individualistic world, suffering from our incapacity to express our inner humanity, dance, and the solo in particular, offer a visual communication through emotion, perception, without the deflection of speaking.

The Seventh man :
Created in 2019

Inspired by « The Seventh » by the poet of the Hungarian Uprising Attila JÓZSEF, The Seventh man embodies the breaks, reconstructions and promises of the present that every human being experiment
all along their lives. Between dreams and reality, the powerful, fluid and dynamic gesture of Riccardo Meneghini, the organic music by Guillaume Perret and the abstracts lights of Guillaume Bonneau, drag the viewer to a hypnotic journey on the inner metamorphoses that make us plural human beings.
Full recording in Gagny, 2019: https://vimeo.com/368107696/dff7fb973d

The Seventh woman :
Creation 2020

Carolyn Carlson offers a sensitive and totally reworked variation of the opening of The Seventh man, adapted to a woman. As an introduction to Riccardo Meneghini’s solo, Sara Orselli embodies the inner lights
that originate from our disruptions with grace and subtlety. Calling the infinite in each gesture, the dancer offers us a brief moment of mindfulness.
The flowers are all droping in the garden make your choice before the fall Carolyn Carlson, Brins d’herbe, Actes Sud, 2011
Captation in Bolzano, 2020 : https://vimeo.com/466292569/50afa5a2ee

Mandala :
Created in 2010

Carolyn Carlson’s solos showcase her spiritual and existential approach to dance. She describes them as ways of sharing the state of solitude that is peculiar to the humancondition.
Mandala is an incarnation of the human heartbeat, a constituent of the space universally shared by every being, from the beginning to the end of our existence. Here, lived time takes the form of the ensō, the
circle of Zen Buddhism that symbolises both the universe and artistic perfection, which can only be achieved by a totally free spirit. The circular patterns found in crop fields are another source of inspiration. They remain unexplained, like a message from a spirit force or from elsewhere, whose unexpectedly beautiful shapes leave a visual mark deep down the soul. A similar mark is left by Michael Gordon’s powerful music. It carries the energy of the movements and strengthens them with the insistent undulation of a beat. Sara Orselli gives shape to this solo, which represents the culmination of the complicity forged over two decades with Carolyn Carlson.
Full recording in Rambouillet, 2016, directed by Max Ruiz : https://vimeo.com/173154914

Wind woman :
Created in 2011

With Wind woman, Carolyn Carlson questions transient feelings. With Céline Maufroid, who has interpreted her creations for several years now, she has started listening to the breaths surrounding us
and those coming from within our bodies. Every human being, through breathing, represent a wind machine. Wind woman invits everyone to listen, to feel the world’s breath as well as its own’s.
Full recording in Naples (IT), 2011 https://vimeo.com/217877456/d1652a2676

Wind women :
Duet
Created in 2018

Either it is soft or extremely powerful, wind flows without lasting. The choreographer chose to explore all its aspects by turning this solo created in 2011 for dancer Celine Maufroid, into a duet with dancer Sara
Simeoni. The two performers follow one another in their singular performances. Wind women…
Full recording in Bari (IT), 2018 https://vimeo.com/338013170/faf8b967d9

In the Night :
Created in 2012 for Synchronicity

In the night treading our inner darkness a thousand mirrors of illumination An open door into the mysteries of reflection Carolyn Carlson
Full recording in Cayenne, 2017: https://vimeo.com/255952161/0c659beb6b

A Deal With Instinct (Provisional Title) :

For this 2023 creation, Carolyn Carlson has chosen to work with Yutaka Nakata, who has been collaborating with her for 15 years. Drawing her inspiration from nature, Zen Buddhism and the martial arts, the choreographer wishes to evoke the animal instinct that lies dormant in each of us and the symbolism of the mountain. Playing on the energies and principles of mindfulness, Yutaka, experienced in Tai-chi and Qi Gong techniques, will invoke the powers of the tiger or the snake to represent the search for balance in the instability of today’s world. After the resounding success of the trio created in 2004, Tigers in the Tea House, the culmination of Carolyn Carlson’s relationship with Eastern cultures and Zen Buddhism, the great lady once again invites us to a broad and deep exploration between East and West, meditation and action, balance and instability, strength and delicacy, immobility and absolute movement: a visual Haiku.

Pictures

Press

Islands at Cankarjev Dom de Ljubljana. Interviews Sara Orselli and Riccardo Meneghini

Critic of Prologue & The Seventh man by Nicolas Brizault in unfauteuilpourlorchestre.com