Claire Dessimoz
Claire Dessimoz
  • 2021

Current Currents

spectacle, danse

2h10


CURRENT CURRENTS seeks how to facilitate the coexistence of different individuals without them necessarily forming a group. Through a collage of intimate tableaux in which performed actions mix with documentary scenes, the five dancers use their bodies and the song that traverses them to evoke current social issues.

CURRENT CURRENTS strives to go against the current of the perpetual spectacle making and hyper-exposition of oneself by proposing moments of non-representation, calm, tenderness and fragility. And if the sum of the parts was greater than the whole?


To come in 2023-2024:
Zürich tanzt + Tanzhaus, Zürich.
Dampzentrale, Bern.
TBB, Yverdon.
ADN-danse, Neuchâtel.
Arsenic, Lausanne. 13-18.07.2021 (premiere)

“… He said that he’d like to show himself differently, and suddenly he opens a new Instagram account… That she found herself super beautiful that morning and regretted not posting anything… And it wouldn’t be a bad idea if I activated parental control over his screen time… That he’d love to be liked, that that girl in his class liked him. That everyone in his class liked him too… And that sometimes she had a hard time understanding the expectations of others. And that she’d like be a little more coached, in general, in her life… And that he’d like to have a boss in these uncertain times. A classic boss… And that we’ve always had a tendency to compare ourselves to others, even if we know it makes us unhappy…. And that there’s a study that shows that silver medallists are often more unhappy than bronze medallists.”

CURRENT CURRENTS marks the second phase of a creation cycle (after TRAVERSER TOUT ENTIER) in which the body is considered as a medium for communication. Through their bodies and voices the performers strive to examine the varying impacts that different current social issues have upon them. The piece aims to indulge in the luxury of nuance and complexity that the realities of the daily struggle for survival or human dignity often render impossible. A sensitive experience rather than a manifest one, the piece is an attempt to keep intact an ensemble of contradictions and paradoxes without necessarily trying to resolve them.

CURRENT CURRENTS goes against the current of the perpetual spectacle making and hyper-exposition of oneself by proposing moments of non-representation, calm, tenderness and fragility. Watching, dancing, waiting, resting, being at times extraordinary and at others pathetic: the dancers follow their individual trajectories, intermingle and separate, existing simply on the stage before the spectators’ eyes. For the audience, the distinction between the centre of the stage and the sidelines is blurred; they have just as much access to the dancers when they are consciously performing in the centre of things as when they seem to forget themselves, or at least forget that they are still visible in margins.

CURRENT CURRENTS is a collage of different individual tableaux, punctuated by choral gatherings that evoke a collective solitude. At different moments the performers come together like an awkward Greek chorus, looking for the possibility of harmony without always achieving it. They embrace the dissonance as much as the euphoric unisons.

CURRENT CURRENTS brings different beings together for a potential moment of coexistence, without necessarily striving for consensus. Through its ensemble of heteroclite performers and their actions the stage, the piece offers up a space in which we as audience members can confront ideas or actions that we may find disturbing and thus puts us in an uncomfortable position rather than comforting us in our certitudes.

CURRENT CURRENTS incorporates the notion of judgement in order to immediately test it. If the piece begins by a clear and binary invitation to judge the propositions made on stage, the repetition and accumulation of examples finally encourages a re-questioning of the solidity of our own judgements.

CURRENT CURRENTS questions the very notion of inclusivity and multiplicity. Fragments of text - non-exhaustive lists, monologues or awkward attempts at speech – punctuate the piece and lead to such questions as: How can one speak of the other? How to name the other, even in an incorrect way? Would it simply be better, in certain cases, to not give names at all?

CURRENT CURRENTS examines our identities and their fabrication before the eyes of the others. The personal propositions follow in succession before the eyes of the other performers and the audience, and touch upon all of our identities, which are composed of that which we like and that which we understand others to like or fashioned by values that we develop or by the changing values of society at large. The piece questions the necessity that possesses us in this day and age to unwaveringly affirm our identities.

Concept
Claire Dessimoz
With
Simon Crettol, Éléonore Heiniger, Jenny Lacher, Valentine Paley, Yuta Ishikawa
And
Louis Bonard, Christian Garcia-Gaucher, Florian Leduc, Luc Müller, Satia Semlali, Dragos Tara, Anouk Werro
Administration
Arythmie – Marianne Caplan and Artemisia Romano
Coproduction
Arsenic – Centre for contemporary performing arts, Lausanne
Residency
Oriental Vevey, Dansomètre – space for choreographic creation, Vevey
Support
State of Vaud, the City of Lausanne, Loterie Romand, Nestlé foundation for the arts, Fondation Nicati de Luze, Fondation Ernst Göhner, SSA for the composition of music for theatre arts.
Info

Bastien Hippocrate and Eléonore Heiniger, with whom she created self-produced pieces, shared in small venues and alternative scenes. The goals of this new structure are to manage the creation and distribution of her first choreographic pieces, as well as to develop new forms of production and artistic research that can be used by other artists.

Since the founding of PRAXIS, Claire Dessimoz has created five stage pieces, four performances, a "mediation-show" with allophone teenagers and a participatory installation for horizontal knowledge sharing. In 2020, she launched a reflection and action group to fight against abuse in the performing arts (Arts_sainement, Lausanne/Geneva) and set up, with Louis Bonard and Clara Delorme,
residency for multi-disciplinary artistic research in 2021 (Lieu Commun, Lausanne).

In 2022, she will work in parallel to the creation of FESTIVAL, a piece co-written with Clara Delorme and Louis Bonard, on a scenic research around the de(con)struction of the beauty capital, and on two pieces, sound and scenic, evoking fantasies of new law articles for the future.

current currents

spectacle danse. Arsenic Lausanne, mars 2021.

Symétrie balade pour un enfant à la fois

autour de l’ouvrage « Symétrie » de Charles Ferdinand Ramuz. Co-création avec Louis Bonard. Parc Mon Repos. Et Maintenant et SAS Lausanne, juillet-août 2020.

Exploration du Flux

mise en scène du texte "Exploration du Flux" de Marina Skalova. Actoral – festival international des arts et des écritures contemporaines. Marseille, octobre 2019.

traverser tout entier

spectacle danse. Arsenic Lausanne, mai 2019.

Un Lieu

installation. Mise en place d’un lieu pour le partage de connaissances et compétences. Tunnel Tunnel Lausanne, six semaines automne 2018.

Pourquoi l’homme fait-il quelque chose plutôt que rien ?

performance. WallRiss Fribourg, 2018.

In Fieri

« spectacle-médiation » pour deux classes d’accueil lausannoises. Arsenic Lausanne et Fête de la danse, mai 2018.

Invitation

spectacle transdisciplinaire, entre danse théâtre et documentaire. Arsenic Lausanne, janvier 2018, Théâtre Benno Besson février 2019, Emergentia-ADC avril 2019.

du bist was du holst

spectacle danse-documentaire. Théâtre de l’Usine Genève, décembre 2016. Théâtre Sévelin 36, mars 2017. Théâtre Benno Besson, février 2019. TanzInWinterthur, novembre 2019.

Pour une personne

performances pour une personne à la fois. Urgent Paradise+St-Martin, 2015. Fête du slip, 2018. 30 ans de l’Usine, 2020.

Wege zum Glück

installation performative avec Nicolas Raufaste, TACTACTAC St-Martin Lausanne 2015. Stammstudio, Porrentruy 2016.

Claire Dessimoz

Artisitic Director

Roberta Alberico

Dramaturgy, Administration, Production

Laurence Rochat

Human ressources & Accounting

COLLABORATORS 2015-2023

Roberta Alberico

Dramaturg & Prod/Admin manager, from 2022 until now

Louis Bonard

Artistic collaborator 2021 (current currents)

Jenna Calderari

Costume designer 2018 (Invitation)

Marianne Caplan

Administrator 2017-2021

Philippe Chosson

Dancer/performer 2018 (Invitation)

Joseph Chosson

Dancer/performer 2018 (Invitation)

Simon Crettol

Costume designer 2019 (traverser tout entier) & dancer/performer 2020 - 2021 (current currents)

Christian Garcia-Gaucher

Music collaborator 2018 - 2021 (Invitation, traverser tout entier, current currents)

Éléonore Heiniger

Dancer/performer 2018 - 2021 (Invitation, travers tout entier, current currents), Artistic collaborator 2023 (Grand Miroir)

Charlotte Hillion

Administrator 2021-2022

Scilla Illardo

Costume designer 2016 (du bist was du holst)

Yuta Ishikawa

Dancer/performer 2020-2021 (current currents)

Manon Krüttli

Dramaturgy 2016 (du bist was du holst)

Shirine Künzle

Dancer/performer 2018 (Invitation)

Jenny Lacher

Dancer/performer 2020-2021 (current currents)

Florian Leduc

Light designer, scenography 2016-2021 (du bist was du holst, Invitation, travserser tout entier, current currents)

Valentine Paley

Dancer/performer 2020-2022 (current currents + research), Artistic collaborator 2023 (Grand Miroir)

Aurélien Patouillard

Dramaturgy coach 2016-2021 (du bist as du holst, Invitation, travserser out entier, current currents)

Raphaël Raccuia

Music 2016 (du bist was du holst)

Bruno Robyr

Co-writing, artistic collaboration 2018 (Invitation)

Laurence Rochat

Human ressources, accounting from 2021

Safia Semlali

Costume designer 2021 (current currents)

Juliana Staldelman

Administrator 2016-2017

Dragos Tara

Music collaboration 2019-2021 (cross all, current currents)

Claire Dessimoz (b.1988) is committed to a practice of “the small and subtle”.
She works with bodies and what they communicate – through their presence on stage or through their words, which she captures and restitutes with precision.
Her work deals with community and social issues: How can we live alongside each other and leave room for diversity, mistakes and disagreements? She invites heterogeneous thoughts into dialogue while resisting the temptation for any form of consensus.

Never dogmatic, she offers intricate pieces that are often joyful and shake up preconceptions and certitudes. Above all, her work aims to show things in the full range of their complexity while actively striving against oversimplification.

Her major works include current currents (2021), traverser tout entire (2019), invitation (2018) and du bist was du holst (2016).
She is currently preparing a double piece FESTIVAL (for adults) and RIMBAMBELLE (for young audiences) for 2023, in collaboration with Clara Delorme and Louis Bonard.

She was artist in residence at the Arsenic - Centre for contemporary performing arts in Lausanne (2017-2020) and benefitted from the program YAA ! – Young Associated Artist, an initiative of Pro Helvetia, Swiss Foundation for Culture. She is currently a recipient of structural subsidies from the Canton of Vaud (2021-2024). She lives and works in Lausanne.

As a child, Claire Dessimoz moved between Yverdon, where she went to school, and Lausanne, Geneva, Bienne and Macolin as a member of the rhythmic gymnastics junior national team.

After her studies in architecture (EPFL) and dance (LABAN), she worked as a dancer/performer, choreographer and assistant and set up a permanent working space in which to conduct on-going collective choreographic research.
Starting in 2004 she developed UNE PERSONNE, a series of performances she proposed through intimate forms that mixed text, sound and movement. This included WEGESUM GLÜCK, a sound installation with the visual artist Nicolas Raufaste and ET L’AVALANCHE, based on auto-generation and systematic composition with Bastien Hippocrate and Éléonore Heiniger.

During the 16-17 season, she created her own structure, based in Lausanne, and presented DU BIST WAS DU HOLST at the Théâtre de l’Usine in Geneva and during the Printemps de Sévelin in Lausanne. It is a solo piece involving archives, the body’s memory, mimicry and social positioning. It was during this time that her work with association/dissociation between movement and speech began. Her subsequent piece, INVITATION, would continue this research, treating this time questions of democracy and autonomy.

From 2019 to 2020, she developed a cycle of two pieces for the stage that resulted from research into the communicative potential of bodies in movement: the first piece, a duo lasting about three hours, about abstract evocations (TRAVERSER TOUT ENTIER); and the second, a group piece that examines questions of identity and current social issues (CURRENT CURRENTS).

Within the domain of contemporary art, she presented the performance POURQUOI L’HOMME FAIT-IL QUELQUE CHOSE PLUTÔT QUE RIEN at WallRiss in Fribourg, in June 2018. She also put in place UN LIEU at the Tunnel in Lausanne during the autumn of 2018, which consisted of organising, running and promoting an ephemeral space dedicated to the exchange of skills and knowledge. Upon the invitation of d’Urgent Paradise, she is preparing a publication in collaboration with artist Louis Schild for 2022.

Parallel to her artistic work, she regularly gives movement research and contemporary dance workshops.
In 2018 she worked with two high school classes for immigrant students at the end of their studies at the Collège de l’Elysée, creating the piece IN FIERI for the Fête de la Danse in Lausanne. During the 2019-2020 school year she held workshops at the OSEO-Vevey for young people in the INIZIO program.

Dates
My Projects
10.01 – 12.01.2024

Grand Miroir

Festival GOGOGO, Grütli-Genève

19.03 – 24.03.2024

Festival

Dessimoz/Delorme/Bonard
ADC-Genève

02.05 – 02.05.2024

current currents

TBB Yverdon

11.05 – 12.05.2024

current currents

Tanzhaus Zürich X Zürich tanzt

31.05 – 02.05.2024

CURRENT CURRENTS

Phönix Theater, Steckborn

01.06 – 30.06.2024

current currents

Temple Allemand Chaux-de-Fonds X ADN-Neuchâtel

02.07 – 07.07.2024

Festival

Dessimoz/Delorme/Bonard
Festival de la Cité, Lausanne

05.12 – 10.12.2023
10.02.2023

Festival

Dessimoz/Delorme/Bonard
Sortie de résidence Pro Helvetia Venice
Palazzo Trevisan, Venise IT

14.03 – 15.03.2023
29.06.2023
13.07 – 18.07.2021
05.06.2020

Symétrie

Claire Dessimoz+Louis Bonard, Semaine des Arts de la Scène Lausanne

05.06.2020

Symétrie

Claire Dessimoz+Louis Bonard, Festival Et Maintenant Lausanne

20.01.2020
22.11.2019
15.11.2019

PERFORMANCE

Claire Dessimoz/Gwenaël Grossfeld, Backslash Festival Gessnerallee Zürich

01.10 – 02.10.2019

Exploration du Flux

mise en espace du texte de Marina Skalova, Objet des Mots, Actoral Marseille

27.09 – 29.09.2019
23.05 – 26.05.2019
09.04 – 14.04.2019
05.04 – 06.04.2019
08.03.2019

Débat autour de la gentrification Urbaine

Tunnel Tunnel Lausanne

17.02.2019
14.02.2019
25.11.2018

POUR UNE PERSONNE

exposition collective, MY PARENTS GOT DIVORCED ON A CHRISTMAS NIGHT, Le Bourg feat Life After God L.A.G Lausanne

15.09 – 18.10.2018

UN LIEU

installation - mise en place d'un lieu pour le partage de connaissances et compétences, Tunnel Tunnel Lausanne


23.06.2018
03.05 – 05.05.2018

IN FIERI

projet de médiation avec les classes d’accueil du collège de l’Elysée, Arsenic Lausanne


16.01 – 21.01.2018
01.12.2017

Ano

performances collectives, Labo 6x15’ : le glitch, Foyer - Grange de Dorigny Lausanne

22.07.2017

POSTE DE RESTITUTION

Claire Dessimoz/Bruno Robyr, installation, Les FAC Fours-à-Chaux St-Ursanne

02.06.2017
02.03.2017

POUR UNE PERSONNE

performance, Fête du Slip, Galerie Forma Lausanne


11.03 – 12.03.2017

DU BIST WAS DU HOLST

Printemps de Sévelin, Sévelin 36 Lausanne


18.02.2017

ACAB

performance/work-in-progress, DAS MUTTER, St Martin Lausanne

15.12 – 17.12.2016

DU BIST WAS DU HOLST

Théâtre de l'Usine Genève

16.11.2016

DU BIST WAS DU HOLST

showing/work-in-progress, Théâtre Sévelin 36 Lausanne

04.05.2016

16+

Claire Dess & Rawfast, performances vernissage °2, EMOI MAGAZINE, Château d'Yverdon


05.03.2016

POUR UNE PERSONNE

performance, DAF Deviant Art Festival Genève


13.02.2016

WEGE ZUM GLÜCK

Claire Dess & Rawfast + Lara Damaso, Stammstudio Porrentruy


09.02 – 10.02.2016

DU BIST WAS DU HOLST

15' version, Les Quarts d'heure, Printemps de Sévelin, Sévelin 36 Lausanne

22.10.2015

WEGE ZUM GLÜCK

Claire Dess & Rawfast + Emma Souharce, Journées Tactactac, St-Martin 18 Lausanne


02.10 – 04.10.2015

ET L'AVALANCHE

Claire Dessimoz / Bastien Hippocrate / Eléonore Heiniger, InciDanse, Nouveau Monde Fribourg


21.06.2015
14.06.2015

POUR UNE PERSONNE

LeTandem, St-Martin 18 / Urgent Paradise Lausanne


12.06.2015

LÂCHE-MOI OU JE TOMBE

Claire Dessimoz/Bastien Hippocrate, SAS Delémont


28.05.2015

D'APRÈS UNE HISTOIRE VRAIE

Claire Dessimoz/Guillaume Guilherme, Exhibition opening, Villa Dutoit Genève


10.05.2015

SERIES - LA FACE CACHEE DE LA BAIE VITRÉE

Tanzfest + Les Amplitudes, Aula de l'Ester La Chaux-de-Fonds


08.05 – 09.05.2015

PIECES SONORES EN CORPS

commande, Tanzfest + Les Amplitudes, Centre de culture ABC La Chaux-de-Fonds

05.04.2015

ET L'AVALANCHE

Claire Dessimoz / Bastien Hippocrate / Eléonore Heiniger, Deviant Art Festival Genève


02.04 – 03.04.2015

DU BIST WAS DU HOLST – ARCHIV

version courte pour appartement, Hors-Lits Vevey

22.10 – 02.11.2015

THE ISLAND

La Saburre, Oriental Vevey

11.10 – 12.10.2014

LÂCHE-MOI OU JE TOMBE

Claire Dessimoz / Bastien Hippocrate, Contexte Silo Renens


17.09 – 20.09.2014

LÂCHE-MOI OU JE TOMBE

Claire Dessimoz / Bastien Hippocrate, Oriental Vevey

19.07.2014

LÂCHE-MOI OU JE TOMBE

Claire Dessimoz / Bastien Hippocrate, Spontaneous Combustion Festival, London


07.06.2014

LÂCHE-MOI OU JE TOMBE

Claire Dessimoz / Bastien Hippocrate, Musée des beaux-arts de La Chaux-de-Fonds

05.04 – 06.04.2014

LÂCHE-MOI OU JE TOMBE

Claire Dessimoz / Bastien Hippocrate, Théâtre de la Tournelle Orbe

11.02.2014

THE ISLAND

La Saburre, Théâtre 2.21 Lausanne

31.12.2012

SALLE DES FÊTES/SALLE DES FÊTES

Claire Dessimoz/Eléonore Heiniger, L'OV CAN Neuchâtel


15.12.2012

CETTE TRAGÉDIE CONTEMPORAINE

Studio 2 Lausanne

11.08.2012

10 MIN ET DES POUSSIÈRES

Claire Dess/Eléonore Heiniger, Rodynam Orbe


29.06.2012
With/For Others
31.01 – 04.02.2024

Le Recueil des Miracles

Un projet de Louis Schild. Chorégraphie: Claire Dessimoz
Vidy Lausanne

01.03 – 31.03.2024

L'externat et le foyer

Clara Delorme, Printemps de Sévelin 24
(interprète)

05.03 – 10.03.2024

Le Recueil des Miracles

Un projet de Louis Schild. Chorégraphie: Claire Dessimoz
Vidy Lausanne

09.05 – 14.05.2023

L’Apocalypse - Intégrale (ép.1-4)

Louis Bonard, Théâtre St-Gervais - Genève
(collaboration artistique)

27.04 – 30.04.2023

L’Apocalypse - épisode 4 : Promesses.

Louis Bonard, Arsenic Lausanne
(collaboration artistique)

11.01 – 14.01.2023

Lumen

Jasmine Morand, Théâtre de la Ville Paris
(assistante en chorégraphie)

06.01.2023

Lumen

Jasmine Morand, Théâtre Paul Eluard - Bezons - France
(assistante en chorégraphie)

06.10 – 10.10.2022

L’Apocalypse - épisode 3 : L’Adversaire

Louis Bonard, Arsenic Lausanne
(collaboration artistique)

02.06 – 05.06.2022

L’Apocalypse - épisode 2 : Les Adieux

Louis Bonard, Arsenic Lausanne

27.01 – 20.02.2022

L’Apocalypse - épisode 1 : Le début de la fin

Louis Bonard, Arsenic Lausanne

21.02.2019
25.01 – 26.01.2019

MIRE

Prototype Status - Jasmine Morand, Théâtre Les Halles Sierre


18.03 – 19.03.2017

MIRE

Prototype Status - Jasmine Morand, Printemps de Sévelin, Sévelin 36 Lausanne


02.02 – 03.02.2017

MIRE

Prototype Status - Jasmine Morand, Printemps de Sévelin, Swiss Dance Days Genève


26.01.2017
14.09 – 19.09.2016
18.05 – 19.05.2016
19.10.2016

DE L'AMOUR, DIONYS MASCOLO

performance, lecture. Bilblioteq Mdulair ✕ Claire @RADIO LUFF

OFF-LUFF St Martin Lausanne. 19.10.2016
Invitée par Biblioteq Mdulair.

06.11 – 07.11.2015

LOST THREADS

Sarah Waelchli, L'abri Genève

14.10 – 18.10.2015

FURNITURE SKIN

Manon Krüttli, LUFF Lausanne


30.08 – 31.08.2015

LEGACY

Nadia Beugré, La Bâtie Genève


20.06.2015

ON BASS

VelvetBlues, Fête de la musique, Scène ADC Genève


29.05.2015
03.05 – 12.05.2015

Résidence artistique avec Manolis Tsipos, Arc Romainmôtier


30.04.2015
28.02.2015
21.02 – 22.02.2015
11.09.2014
04.09 – 05.09.2014

SHIVER

Nicole Seiler, GIPCA Live Art Festival, Cape Town, SA


29.08 – 31.08.2014

BODIES IN URBAN SPACES

Willi Dorner, Le Mouvement Bienne


23.04 – 03.05.2014
18.04.2014
10.04 – 11.04.2014
04.02 – 09.02.2014
04.01.2014

YOU MET HAVE I

Barbara Greco, DanceOUT Festival Roma IT