OuDance festival

Sarah Baltzinger’s work inevitably stems from her curious way of relating to the world, between disorder and unapologetic emotion. Her work reflects a certain approach to bodies that find circulation between strangeness and non-logical ways of existing. That’s how she found herself an organic place where she experiments the ‘‘puppeteering body’’. This filter-less approach leads her to create grotesque objects where absurdity takes place. In Vénus Anatomique, a multifaceted piece, she aims to explore all layers of what it means to have and wear a female body and the overwhelming alienation that comes with it.

 In reference to the fascinating wax-figures created by the ceroplast Clemente Susini (late 18th century), VÉNUS ANATOMIQUE articulates itself between the macabre and “pulsion de vie”. The piece creates an imaginary world that deals with the strange, erotic and biblical nature of these artificial bodies that were designed to teach anatomy to medical students and to the general public. This project is a continuation of a choreographic research based on puppeteering and mechanical gestures that reveal the body in a fragmented way. It is the friction between pronounced physicality and immobility that acts as a driving force trough-out the whole choreography.

VÉNUS ANATOMIQUE exhibits a collection of female bodies that are being prepared for “labor” and that are suddenly plunged into a state of survival. The piece reveals bodies that are split into two states: human nature and as an object of representation. This duality is contrasted by the body’s constant desire to reappropriate itself. In this project, Sarah Baltzinger comments on the disorder of the world, that of the superficial simulacrum and sexualization of the female body. She creates a universe where femininity is turned into a masquerade and performs itself through an absurd and distorted lens.

Concept, artistic direction, creation & choreography: Sarah Baltzinger | Co-creation & choreographic assistance: Isaiah Wilson | Co-creation & performance: Chiara Corbetta, Shynna Kalis, Marie Lévénez, Clara-Lou Munié & Océane Robin | Sound composition: Guillaume Jullien | Dramaturgy: Amandine Truffy, Isaiah Wilson & Sarah Baltzinger | Background research: Alexandra Joly & Sarah Baltzinger | Set design: Manon Terranova | Body sculptures: Manuela Benaim |  Rehearsal director: Brian CA | Lighting design & Stage management: Thibault Dubourg | Production of the visit: JoJo – Oulu Dance Centre | Duration: 60 min