SIN Work commissioned by Thomas Noone Dance (Barcelona, Spain).
Original music: Jim Pinchen
Costume and lighting design: Joan Clevillé
Premiere: September 2013, Dancing Partners platform at SAT! Teatre, Barcelona (Spain)
Touring: Festival Madrid en Danza 2013
'The starting point for SIN was the experience of longing, which sometimes may not even have a discernable object of desire. Immerse in an outrageously materialist society, we often find ourselves isolated, numbed by an endless roar of information and banality. Through a choreographic language both physical and theatrical, SIN delves into the existential emptiness that underlies our contemporary world, and explores our inability to establish a meaningful contact with the reality that surrounds us and those who inhabit it.'
ACHILLES I
Music: Passacaglia for violin solo in G minor by Heinrich Biber
Costume
design: Matthias StrahmTouring: Festival Madrid en Danza 2013
'The starting point for SIN was the experience of longing, which sometimes may not even have a discernable object of desire. Immerse in an outrageously materialist society, we often find ourselves isolated, numbed by an endless roar of information and banality. Through a choreographic language both physical and theatrical, SIN delves into the existential emptiness that underlies our contemporary world, and explores our inability to establish a meaningful contact with the reality that surrounds us and those who inhabit it.'
Press reviews selection:
'There
is a huge amount of (Spanish) choreographers and dancers working outside our
frontiers, very often unbeknown to us. It is good news then when they get a
chance to present part of their enquiry and artistic practice in their own
land. It is the case of Joan Clevillé, invited by Thomas Noone Dance to
choreograph a short piece to open the season at the SAT! Teatre, the second
dance house in Barcelona: a venue close to community and to everyday life... This
creation talks precisely about this: affections and ties, tenderness and
identity. Almost corroborating that distance does no more than enhancing the
most authentic experiences amongst everything we live.
Jordi Sora in Susy Q, Revista de Danza
ACHILLES I Music: Passacaglia for violin solo in G minor by Heinrich Biber
Lighting
design: Emma Jones
Premiere:
June 2013. RepNet Hothouse at Skånes Dansteater, Malmö (Sweden)
Touring: June 2014. TanzArt ostwest festival, Giessen (Germany)
Touring: June 2014. TanzArt ostwest festival, Giessen (Germany)
'Achilles I is a meditation around the notions of struggle, violence and resilience. The solo explores the notion of 'hero' and the ambivalent character of this mythological figure, related to both strength and vulnerability, to both public and private spheres'.
LOVE GAMESMusic: Goldmund, Gustavo Santaolalla, Hauschka, Kimya Dawson
Costume design: Matthias Strahm
Premiere: July 2011. Dundee Rep Theatre, Dundee (UK)
Touring:
_Scottish Dance Theatre, UK Autumn Tour '11 & Spring Tour '12
_Luoghi Comuni Festival, 2012 Bergamo (Italy)
Touring:
_Scottish Dance Theatre, UK Autumn Tour '11 & Spring Tour '12
_Luoghi Comuni Festival, 2012 Bergamo (Italy)
'Scientist Isaac
Newton may not be regarded as the most romantic figure in history, but when the
apple hit his head and he came up with the idea of gravity, he was recognising
that there was an irresistible force that affected all human beings. Love, like
gravity, also exerts an irresistible force in our lives. The English expression
‘to fall in love’ sums up how helplessly we succumb to it. No matter how much
we resist or how invulnerable we think we are; love can take control of our
lives in an instant, leaving us defenceless and paralysed.
And yet...Who can afford to live without love? We keep gambling with it...
Love
Games is a playful exploration of the contradictory
nature of love and of the beautifully ridiculous ways in which we try to deal
with it.
Press reviews selection:
'Love Games, a bitter-sweet mix of playground games and adult tensions - with five dancers, there's always going to be an odd one out and Clevillé tracks the power shifts with humour and expressive choreography.'
Mary Brennan, The Herald
'Clevillé
mocks the ridiculous nature of our desperation to find love, demoting his
dancers to schoolchildren running after one another as if playing chase. Poking
fun at love’s silliness, an intimate duet is interrupted by the man blowing a
raspberry into his partner’s tummy, and as the piece reaches its close, dancers
become burly rugby players diving on one another to take down the competition.
Clevillé’s quintet has an honesty and familiarity that is uplifting; Clevillé’s
witty and provocative vigour energising this common human narrative.'
Lucy Jarvis, Cloud Dance Festival
'Love Games by Joan Clevillé was quirky and light, and featured a beautifully expressed solo by Solène Weinachter.The piece explores the many facets of love - and how people choose to deal with this paradoxically serious yet playful emotion. (...) Clevillés work was interesting in its ability to stay engaging, even while exploring a topic that is anything but new; this new choreographer is one to watch.'
Erin Johnson, Bachtrack
DREAMT FOR LIGHT YEARSDuo created for the Under Construction programme of Scottish Dance Theatre.
Music: Sparklehorse
Lighting design: Emma JonesCostume design: Matthias Strahm
Premiere: July 2010. Bonar Hall, Dundee (UK)
Touring:
_Scottish Dance Theatre UK Autumn Tour '10, Spring & Autumn Tour '11
_TanzArt ostwest dance festival, Giessen (Germany), June '11
_Il Giardino delle Esperidi dance and theatre festival, Campsirago (Milan, Italy), July '11
_Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Scottish Dance Theatre: Matters of the Heart, August '11
'While creating Dreamt for Light Years I was constantly shifting between the literal meaning of what we see and what is hidden behind it. Although the piece presents the disintegration of a relationship, I am more interested in the general theme of “change”. Change as the motor of our lives, as something necessary and unavoidable but at the same time scary and sometimes painful. I leave to the audience the task to read the piece however they want, however it is more relevant to them. For me it talks about those decisive moments in life where, if one wants to be true to oneself, there is just one thing to do: to let go and move forward, to take a step into the unknown.'
Press reviews selection:
'It is the understated work of company dancer Joan Clevillé which stands out. Dreamt for Light Years, is a frenetic, fluid, emotional duet (...). Simple, emotive and personal this is among the strongest and most promising work from a young choreographer out there.'
Sean Watson, The Journal
'Clevillé has created an elegantly condensed snapshot of a relationship at the crossroads,(...) as the catalyst of change is played out with sincerity and clarity in all its pain and glory. It is an intense and engaging work: flowing, varied, perfectly paced and danced with moving tenderness.'
Hannah Myers, Broadway Baby
'This exciting and beautiful choreography, danced with superb skill and strength, made tangible the inescapable truth that change is unavoidable and necessary and that this can be painful and frightening, as well as stimulating and exhilarating.'
Justine Blundell, Edinburgh Guide
DAS LANDHAUS
Dance theatre performance for one actress and three dancers, based on the short story by Eduard von Keyserling.
Direction: Danielle Strahm
Choreography: Joan Clevillé
Costume design: Matthias Strahm
Premiere: June 2009. Actor's Bar at the Ebene 3 of Schauspielhaus Graz (Austria).
Re-staged for the Autumn '09 season.
'Das Landhaus is the story of a journey. The journey of a woman travelling to her house in the countryside. Disappointed with her empty existence in the city next to a husband that she doesn't love, Alda plans to put an end to her life in the old country house where she grew up. There, she confronts her fears, but she also finds a possibility for hope. The simple lifestyle, the environment and its inhabitants help her to let go of the past and move towards acceptance.'
CADUCIFOLIO
Work for six dancers created for the Junge Choreographen Werkstatt of the Graz Opera.
Music: Pan Sonic, Arvo Pärt
Costume design: Vibeke Andersen
Assistant costume design: Matthias Strahm
Premiere: June 2008. Studiobühne, Oper Graz (Austria)
'Caducifolio is a Spanish word that refers to the type of trees that lose their leaves every season. For me, this is a powerful image that reminds me of change and transformation, but also of letting go and searching for the essential. In this work, I tried to reflect that journey towards acceptance and simplicity, and to remind myself of how important it is to connect with the environment and to the people that surround us.'
Re-staged:
_Theaterfest, Oper Graz, September '08
'Caducifolio is a Spanish word that refers to the type of trees that lose their leaves every season. For me, this is a powerful image that reminds me of change and transformation, but also of letting go and searching for the essential. In this work, I tried to reflect that journey towards acceptance and simplicity, and to remind myself of how important it is to connect with the environment and to the people that surround us.'
