It is enough for a choreographer to use the word, work with the improvisation of his dancers and immediately be labeled as the “heir of Pina Bausch”. If he was then invited to Wuppertal to create a job for the company that belonged to Pina, “Bon Voyage, Bob” (the only one chosen together with Dimitri Papaioannou), he won’t run away from there. Yet the Norwegian Alan Lucien Øyen is far from the lady in question. This was seen at the Paris Opera that invited him to choreograph an entire evening, “Cri de Coeur”, and it happened two years ago in Torinodanza with the presentation of the solo “Sinnerman” played by Daniel Proietto. And where he returns on 25 and 26 October at Fonderie Limone, with “Story, Story, Die” this time with his company, “Winter Guests”. If the Turin work, in the national premiere, announces itself as a fresco on the dreams and desires of a young generation, “Cri de Coeur” sets out on the story of illness, cancer, and death. A journey, but also a mental flow, an accumulation of different sensations and feelings, in which two great performers accompany us: Héléna Pikon, mature ex dancer of Pina Bausch, in the role of the mother, and Marion Barbeau, the daughter, and protagonist in these weeks also on screen in the film “Life is a dance” by Cédric Klapisch. Barbeau had been chosen by the choreographer long before the cinema spotlight shone on her: Øyen’s project for the Opéra was born before the pandemic. Here the dancer brings to life the character of the sick young woman with authority and the ability to go through different aspects of her condition. A state underlined by the presence of a hospital bed and by some t-shirts worn by the dancers on which sick lungs are portrayed: a bit macabre, yes.
The show develops by alternating spoken parts (many) and danced slices where the choreographer does not adhere to a precise style but makes use of different gestural possibilities. Taking where he needs it.
Is there a Nordic, Lutheran atmosphere? Certainly in the scene where three characters sit at a simple table set and pray before starting the meal. A simple life. A small Christmas tree. The scenographies framed and mounted on mobile panels and moved to view by the machinists and dancers, design modest environments, green landscapes. However, a rich show for a serious theme. With the never redundant use of video, which projects close-ups of the protagonists at the back of the scene. There is also a glimpse of the “Foyer de la danse”, that famous golden and curly room, which is behind the stage and which in some shows is shown to the spectator.
A company, that of the Paris Opera, of the highest level (but this was already known) capable of passing nonchalantly from dance to acting; with the translation of the texts in English projected high above the stage for the foreign audience that traditionally flocks to the theater. To mention at least Takeru Coste, but all over thirty performers deserve to be remembered.
He Øyen, grows up in the world of theater, the Bergen National Scene, founded by Ibsen, where his father was a costume designer. He breathed theater from an early age, studied dance in Oslo, joined the Norwegian company “Carte Blanche”, worked with Amanda Miller and showed a fascinating interest in the American consumer world, title: “Kodak”.