We Loved Each Other So Much

About We Loved Each Other So Much

Choreographer and acrobat Yoann Bourgeois is fascinated by the games of vertigo, which reflect the civilizational upheaval of our world. He creates his captivating dance poetry in close interaction with space by exploring specific physical devices.

We Loved Each Other So Much explores the vital incandescence that is the basis of our movement through a piece of rare virtuosity and intensity.

Press

“Extremely physically impressive.” (Expressen)

“Precision is, of course, total and vitally important." (Göteborgs-Posten)

“The whole work is like a storm or whirlwind that suddenly stops, coalesces, then dances on." (Svenska Dagbladet)

“It is pleasing to see an aesthetic vision combine technical concept with such rigor as in We Loved Each Other So Much" (Aftonbladet)

“[The dancers’] individuality is given space in a fascinating way, despite the fact that this work is fundamentally based on group dynamics and collaboration, in that everyone has a firm grasp of each other’s place in the room, every second.” (Aftonbladet)

“Yoann Bourgeois has a background in circus and it is impressive how he transfers the acrobatic technique to the dancers.” (Göteborgs-Posten)

“Exactly how certain acrobatic elements are possible to perform is difficult to understand in this new, fast-paced work that seems to oscillate between the totally dedicated and the desperately abandoned.” (Svenska Dagbladet)

“A lifelong abandonment trauma, shaped by the human body’s ability to both carry and lose itself.” (Dagens Nyheter)

“A crazily furious pace driven by Félix Lakkó's wild strings. The dancers bounce in from the sides, almost fly in. How do they get so high?” (Borås Tidning)

Team

CHOREOGRAPHY, COSTUME DESIGN Yoann Bourgeois
ASSISTANT CHOREOGRAPHERS Marie Bourgeois, Winston Reynolds
SET DESIGN Yoann Bourgeois
LIGHTING DESIGN David Stokholm

MUSIC
Félix Lajkó – three pieces from the concert És zenekara (1998): Játék 1, Vonósnégyes, Finálé
Leonard & Adam Cohen – The Goal from Thanks for the dance (2019)

Information

Running time - 35 minutes
Dancers - 17

World premiere 12 April 2024, Göteborg Opera’s Main Stage.

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Teaser

Yoann Bourgeois’ thoughts

”Ultimately, I believe it is about courage” by Yoann Bourgeois, choreographer

My research around suspension is a quest for existence. The suspension is this place where the forces in presence are perfectly balanced.

Imagine tossing a ball in the air. The fraction of second before it falls is the point of suspension. It could also be at the end of a question. The intonation rises, the question is asked, there’s a void ... before the answer is given. That’s where I aim in my works. Where all forces are in balance.

For each piece, I am driven by a feeling that has no words to describe it, but which nevertheless exists. This is what justifies art: trying to give form and visibility to what is invisible.

This feeling is sometimes tenuous, but it is what guides the entire process. So, I try to give it an exact shape, an exact tone. The shaping of this invisible sensation is precisely the work that will be created.

If I had to give a few words today (at the moment when I am writing this text and when this creation is still in progress), I would borrow them from the poet Pier Paolo Pasolini who speaks of ”desperate vitality”. This strange and beautiful expression seems to reflect the sensitive and courageous presence that I am looking for.

In several previous works, I have exposed dancers to numerous physical phenomena. This time I work without a mechanical device because another natural force will be at play: aging.

One dimension in exploring the point of suspension depends on where I am in life. Today, I feel worked by the erosion of age, the steamroller of the days and by the times.

I feel that what is at stake now, is vital energy.

I would like to resist the deadly trend of our time, which artificialises reality and destroys our potential. This creation is inhabited by an urgency to be.

Some of my great sources of inspiration have recently disappeared. French writer and poet Christian Bobin inspired the title with his words “It is not to become a writer that one writes. It is to silently rejoin this love which all love misses.”

And then the recently deceased dancer and choreographer Steve Paxton. In the 1970s, he developed contact improvisation, a dance form where dancers use each other’s bodies as an ever-changing resource of movement and expression. Through touch and reaction, they can explore weight, balance, support and collaboration, creating a kind of dialogue.

This time I have invited 17 dancers to venture further into new territories, not simply by juxtaposing disciplines such as acrobatics, dance or combat but by working on these materials until an unprecedented hybridisation of languages emerges.

Beyond this trans-disciplinary dialogue, it is an insatiable search for self-improvement that guides the group in this creation.

In this work, there is no story, no narrative. It is a search for presence, driven by the intensity of life in its purest form. A desperate vitality.

The title We loved each other so much reminds us of the importance of not giving in to weariness.

The title reminds us of what really matters. How is it possible that we can hurt ourselves so much when we have loved so much? Every day there is something that can make us bitter. I want to find another way, so the title also reflects a search. It claims to strive for real, authentic, true engagement from dancers.

Ultimately, I believe it is about courage.

We Loved Each Other So Much