Why mess with a winning formula? Back in 2001, La Bâtie gave eight performers the freedom to choose a choreographer to create a solo for them: a radical role reversal that put the performer at the heart of creation. The experiment, revived in 2018, once again stood out for its daring spirit and freshness. Now, for this 49^th edition, as Claude Ratzé signs off on his final season as artistic director, the festival brings the format back with SIX/SIX. Six emerging performers – two from dance, four from theatre – select their creative partners (choreographers, directors, artists) to craft a solo. These creative blind dates breathe new life into stage writing and return the spotlight to the performer as the driving force of creation, celebrating transmission, trust and the vibrant energy of a new generation

5/6 – Nina Negri & Dylan Poletti (theatre)
PUPPY-PLAY
“The oppressor does not hear the language of the oppressed as speech, but as noise.”
— Valérie Solanas, SCUM Manifesto

How far can one direct, and be directed? Are there limits? And can they be crossed?
PUPPY-PLAY probes and subverts the power dynamics at the heart of the director/actor relationship.
Dylan Poletti and Nina Negri confront these questions in the wake of the MeToo movement and the surge of testimonies exposing abuse within the performing arts. A kind of theatrical agility course, the piece echoes wider systems of dominance and submission, and places its bet on the rebellious force of the living.

6/6 – Mathilde Morel & Kenza Zourdani (theatre)
Hapax ou La Comparution Immédiate 
Summoned to appear without knowing exactly what she’s accused of, mistaken for someone else, Kenza – like Joseph K. in The Trial – must defend herself against an accusation that is both opaque and overwhelming. And like him, she resists.
Hapax ou La Comparution Immédiate (Hapax or Summary Hearing) is a meeting point between the poetic writing of Mathilde Morel and Kenza Zourdani, confronting two forms of radical powerlessness: that of the average European in the face of the first live-broadcast genocide and that of a theatre striving to find the strength of its own voice.