In this chapter, I will analyse a recent dance-music piece, D'après une histoire vraie (Based on a real story), created in 2013 by the conceptually driven French choreographer Christian Rizzo, who is also responsible for the stage design and the costumes, and two composers/musicians, Didier Ambact and King Q4, who composed the score and perform onstage for the duration of the show (about one hour) along with eight male dancers. 1 This abstract piece is based on a precise choreographic structure framed by minimalistic stage aesthetics. In addition to that, the low-key lighting designed by Caty Olive, the costumes (jeans and grey-blue T-shirts) and the dancers' look (five of them have long hair and half a dozen have beards) all clearly relate to the 1970s. D'après une histoire vraie -now available on Vimeo 2 -was created for the Festival d'Avignon and has received outstanding audience success, considered by critics to be a refined example of Western stage dance and one of Rizzo's masterpieces. This achievement is most probably one of the reasons why Rizzo was appointed director of the Centre Chorégraphique National de Montpellier in 2015. Rizzo, who comes from an Italian-Spanish family of Moroccan origins, started his artistic career as a member of a rock band and designer of a line of clothing and only later studied fine arts in Nice, unexpectedly branching out into dance. 3 While continuing his career as a choreographer, he often creates soundtracks and music for other dance companies.D'après une histoire vraie concerns memory, tradition, authenticity and community. It therefore offers the opportunity to focus on some conceptual and methodological issues that can help in verifying to what extent the artists' limited exposure to folklore, globalisation and postcolonial studies compromise the outcome of a dance piece that ends up reinforcing the obsolete way folk dance and folk music are still perceived by a large portion of the audience. In analysing the creative process and the structure of D'après une histoire vraie, my purpose is to consider the sets of knowledge that have been taken as the starting point of the project and those implied in its reception of the piece. I will also argue that crucial theoretical aspects
Remembering folklore, staging contemporary danceConceptual and methodological issues about D'après une histoire vraie (2013) by Christian Rizzo
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