Press

Fantasies about monsters

The French choreographer and dancer Pierre Rigal – who in a former life was a top athlete – has subtitled Press, his new solo performance, ‘a choreographic tragedy or the disquieting strangeness of the ordinary’.

Press is based on childlike fantasies about monsters: how in the darkness and shadows objects or body parts can assume monstrous shapes, become unrecognisable and frighten us. Pierre Rigal finds himself in a sort of box: a small, empty space which changes mechanically and to which the body and the ‘human object’ that lives in it constantly have to adapt both physically and mentally. The result is an absurd performance that is both frightening and amusing, and in which the manipulation of light plays an important role. The light is in fact the monster who takes control of the dancer. The dancer is transformed into an object, a robot, as his body becomes an extension or an appendage of the light(s).

Press was created in the tiny Gate Theatre in London. Frédéric Stoll designed the stage set and the lighting. Rigal inhabits the box as a performer/object. 

In the spring of 2006 Rigal was a guest in the Kaaitheater with his solo performance, Erection, his very first project which he created together with Aurélien Bory.

Pierre Rigal
Ancien sportif de haut niveau, spécialiste de 400 m et de 400 haies, Pierre Rigal a poursuivi des études d’économie mathématique et possède un DEA de cinéma de l’Ecole Supérieure d’Audiovisuel à Toulouse. Il découvre la danse contemporaine tardivement. Pendant sa formation, il croise le chemin de chorégraphes tels que Heddy Maalem, Bernardo Montet, Wim Vandekeybus et de metteurs en scène tels que Mladen Materic. En 2002, il intègre la compagnie de Gilles Jobin pour la création de Under Construction et la reprise de The Mœbius Strip. Parallèlement, il travaille en tant que réalisateur de vidéo-clips et de documentaires, comme Balade à Hué pour France 3 et installe des dispositifs vidéo pour la CIE 111 qui conçoit des spectacles à la croisée du théâtre, de la danse et du cirque. En novembre 2003, Pierre Rigal fonde la compagnie dernière minute, conçoit et interprète sa première pièce, le solo érection, mis en scène par Aurélien Bory. Juillet 2005, il est interprète du chorégraphe malgache Ariry Andriamorasiresy pour le Vif du sujet à Montpellier Danse 05.