L’après-midi d’un faune (Afternoon of a faun)
October 27, 2022 at 4 pm: Danced recital at the Musée des Beaux arts de Nîmes, rue Cité Foulc.
An original play with a text by Stéphane Mallarmé and a choreography by Vaslav Nijinski to the music of Claude Debussy.
A garden of depth: a look at L’après-midi d’un faune for a different view of the ongoing exhibition « Saga Godebski ». Organized by the Musée des Beaux Arts de Nîmes, with a staging by Noël Cadagiani, accompanied by dancers from the Ballet Cadagiani: Aurélie Bea and Gaëtan Frenoy.
Come into the dance (with Laban notation)
Artistic course included in the agreement DRAC – Conseil départemental du Gard (*)
(*) DRAC (Direction Régionale des Affaires Culturelles) is responsible for implementing the priorities set by the French Ministry of Culture and Communication, adapted to the regional context.
This program is also offered to program organizers as an (optional) companion event to the Triclinium performance angeboten.
The goal is to provide access to the artistic practice of dance to a wide audience, including those furthest from it.
This project encounters various obstacles, most notably the necessary prerequisites. The practice of dance requires dancers to have a minimum knowledge of choreographic language, techniques, and culture. All too often, the target groups do not have this knowledge.
To overcome this obstacle and allow a very wide audience to access the choreographic art, we use an approach that can be used without any prerequisite, that is, the movement notation developed by Rudolph Laban, also known as Laban kinetography.
Laban notation: an artistic tool, but also a pedagogical one.
Over the course of classes, school events, and even at the occasion of public appearances after or before a performance, we’ve found that a written medium can get an audience completely unfamiliar with the subject « into the dance » surprisingly quickly.
Photos above, from left to right: (1) performance of Fan Dance (a piece by Andy de Groat) in July 2020; (2) and (3): immediately after the performance, the audience is invited on stage and, with a Laban kinetogram in hand, learns a simplified section of the choreography, guided by Noël Cadagiani and the dancers scattered in the audience.
For both children and adults, learning the Laban notation system brings precision in describing a pathway in space or a movement. Using this system of notation spectacularly improves their perception of their own movement and its dynamics.
Having learned the basic signs of Laban notation, the participants are very quickly able to trace a path in space recorded on the (simplified) kinetogram presented to them. Even more, they are quickly able to imagine their own path, describe it by combining the signs of Laban notation and propose it to other participants for execution.
« Come in the dance » (with the performance Triclinium).
If this cultural initiative accompanies the performance Triclinium, it can serve as a starting point for an initiation to the Laban notation. For this purpose, simplified worksheets suitable for a first approach have been designed and distributed to the participants. Two examples are given below (« Circle » and « Flower »):
Examples of worksheets with simplified excerpts from the Triclinium choreography
The pedagogical potential of Laban notation is not limited to the choreographic arts, but has applications in all areas where body movements must be mastered.
It can be used, for example, to train blind and visually impaired people and improve their perception of their position in space. There are special aids for reading Laban kinetograms that are suitable for these target groups.
Program organizers, organizers of performances, do not hesitate to consult us to work out with us a program tailored to your needs.
Ballet Cadagiani 