An expected return. After a cancellation in 2020 and a version finally reworked in show in 2021, the parade of the Biennale de la danse de Lyon takes to the streets again, Sunday September 10. Made up of more than 3,000 dancers and amateur musicians, divided into twelve successive groups, the giant choreography promises to be a whiff of joy, between Place des Terreaux and Place Bellecour, where more than 200,000 spectators are expected at the start of the season. ‘afternoon.
Scheduled to open the dance festival which runs until September 30, the Biennale de Lyon parade is much more than a festive afternoon. Dances, music and costumes tell the story of hours and months of rehearsals, meetings and volunteer commitment. The parade also results from the mobilization of the surrounding neighborhoods and towns: in addition to the outlying cities of Lyon, the troops come from Annecy, Ardèche, Chambéry and Grenoble.
“When you participate in the parade once, you never forget it. It goes through people’s lives. The care taken is as important as that put into a stage show. Each group builds its own style, like a team that sees each other all year before the big day. Everyone has their own soul,” says Corinne (who, like her colleagues, wished to remain anonymous). Accustomed to biennials, the costume designer, intermittent of the show, animated the sewing workshop of the group of Saint-Fons and Feyzin, in the south of the Lyon area.
A matter of family and friendship
The volunteer seamstresses made 160 costumes for the choreography imagined by Karla Pollux and Aurélien Kairo, two artists in residence in Feyzin. “It’s a human adventure. For months, we see each other, we talk, we have fun and we struggle together. Even after the biennial, we continue to check in on us,” says Nina. The childminder participates in her ninth parade. She began as a dancer, alone, then with her son, before joining the sewing team this year. The Biennale is a family affair, a matter of friendship. Solidarity, a lot. “A teenager who didn’t know where to go came to work with us, he got his professional baccalaureate and he made it his career,”reports Corinne. The seamstresses also remember a very ill friend who held on by participating regularly in the workshop.
Over the months, their place becomes part of the neighborhood. Young people knock on the door, looking for a touch-up. At the beginning of July, it’s the effervescence in the spartan local of the Clochettes district, in Saint-Fons. It’s time for the final touch-ups after fitting. Each seamstress assigns herself a task. Catherine, nicknamed “the Surgeon”, has the mission of carrying out the delicate revisions. Normal for this former silk worker who came with her apron. “Everyone does what they know how to do, the team is being built little by little”,says Claire, a former teacher who meticulously holds the tableau of dancers, divided into several rows, according to the order of the choreography.
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