One of the most important international dance artists of the past 30 years, French choreographer Jérôme Bel presents a career retrospective he calls his “auto-bio-choreo-graphy.”
For ecological reasons, Bel no longer travels by plane; instead, UK-based performer Terry O’Connor of Forced Entertainment plays him, challenging the boundaries between art and interpretation, performance and archive.
A blend of filmed dance documentation, monologue, and live restaging, this unexpected evening is both a survey of past creation and a gesture of constant reinvention.
About Jérôme Bel
Jérôme Bel lives in Paris and works worldwide. He has been making dances since 1994. He politicises his questions, aware of the crisis involving the subject in contemporary society and the forms its representation takes on stage. He shows a preference for the community of differences over the formatted group, a desire to dance over choreography and duly applies the methods of a process of emancipation through art.
He has been invited to contemporary art biennials and museums internationally (Tate Modern, MoMA, Documenta 13, the Louvre), where he has presented performances and shown films.
About Terry O’Connor
Terry O’Connor is a core member and performer with Forced Entertainment, “Britain’s most brilliant experimental theatre company” (The Guardian), award-winners of the 2016 International Ibsen Prize for their original contribution to theatre.
Her work as an artist and performer is also replayed through a long history of engagement as a lecturer, mentor and collaborator, recently focused on extending experimental practice in her work with young people on Forced Entertainment’s participation projects. In 2011, she became Professor of Contemporary Theatre and Performance Practice at the University of Sheffield.
Her current doctoral research at the University of Salford (2019-25) investigates the functions and philosophies of improvised text within the postdramatic and the possibilities of the form in applied theatre contexts, working with young people and non-professional groups.
Content warning: the video material shown during the work contains some nudity.
Age guidance: 16+.
