The Art of war is the strategy of the weak versus the strong, in order to conquer an equal power.
For this new show, Lin Yuan Shang has found his inspiration with " The Art of war ", text of the Chinese philosopher Sun Tzu, written in the Vth century B.C. as well as " 36 stratagems "adapting them to our modern society and to Man in his everyday life.
What can do Man facing danger? Dealing with the sensation of danger, vague, but tangible, the body reacts to different feelings with different strategies. The sensation of a hand on one’s shoulder, a more global feeling facing our societies, or simply the pressure of everyday life... little gifts or rough burstings to which the body reacts and feels suddenly alive.
How can one develop the faculty of improvisation in front of this danger? An improvisation nourrished by the intuition of the body.
The body, in the oriental sense of the term, is the close union of the body and the spirit. He can be awakened, trained, able to face reality whatever its shape might be.
Resist, run away, fall, get up, love, hate. Alone or together. All these choices are investigated by the three dancers in a sonic atmosphere illustrating the presence, the approach or even the simple possibility of threat.
The writing is focused on the perception of danger and on the diverse reactions to face it, with humor and lightness. Scenes are linked, highlighting the strategies of each one in front of the other, but also facing himself, to conquer.
Indeed, isn’t Man his worst enemy?
Each of the three dancers use various strategies which remind some of " 36 stratagems ": the beautiful... trapped; Clamor in the East, attack in the West…
From an energy ressembling martial arts to a "shapeless" energy of contemporary dance. The internal energy of kung fu is precisely and freely exteriorized in improvisation, thus allowing the developpment of a new imagination in the shapes and the body. It materializes itself through human feelings and sensations giving the abstraction of dance a certain theatrical aspect.
For the dancers, coming from a western culture, the research for control in martial arts merges in contemporary dance, in a dance mixed and orchestrated by the choreographer Lin Yuan Shang, of Taiwanese origin and trained with Kung fu masters.
The working process between Lin Yuan Shang and his dancers is in itself "conflicting": they have a very different philosophy. The project develops then from these conflicts which open new imaginary spaces.
It is the postulate that war is permanent. The art of war becomes then necessary and the strategies are rich in energy and interesting to develop in contemporary dance.
The conflicts reveal different kind of problems: conflict with oneself, conflict with the other one. The conflict leads to imagine strategies of defense.
The writing is focused on the perception of the danger and on the diverse reactions to face it, not without humor nor lightness.
At the origin of the project there is a report that, the more the world opens on bigger interactions, the more the individual tends to close on himself, losing dynamics of life, forgetting the body. " The Art of war " today would be to develop the body as a weapon, but with the only purpose of victory without the war.
The musical universe
The music composed by Thierry Madiot, breath performer, trombonist and inventor of experiments with acoustic sounds.
The musician works on tones which suggest the danger; he is on stage with recorded sounds and in improvisation in connection with the danced movement.
The artistic project bases itself on a meeting between the body and the sound around the notion of danger; the energy of the movements is made in tones.
