Choreographer Carolyn Carlson sees herself writing poetry “even at 100!” »

“I could write poetry, even at 10! » says choreographer Carolyn Carlson, 81, who with her dancers, “starts from poetry” to “search for movement”. On his program: dance events in Parisian museums, and soon a collection of poems. On the edge between these two universes, the Franco-American, who played a major role in the emergence of contemporary dance in Europe and defines her art as “visual poetry”, will declaim her texts on Monday in front of Les Nymphéas at the ‘Orangery.

In a show in which two artists from his company will also participate, an actor and a cellist, poetry and dance will intertwine during a performance giving pride of place to improvisation in front of the paintings of Claude Monet.

“These paintings are extraordinary! What I like is that Monet works with nature,” exclaims the artist, some of the pieces she has choreographed in recent years “are inspired by ecological themes.”

“I am terrified of climate change,” she confides. For these “poetic events”, she chose twenty of her poems which speak “of nature and humanity”.

With around a hundred pieces and ballets to her credit, some of which have become cult like Blue Lady or Signes, Carolyn Carlson, at the head of a company which today has 12 dancers and around twenty collaborating artists, has never stopped , for five decades, to rethink dance, freeing itself from the classic straitjacket.

Next June, in the nave of the Orsay Museum, a tour of his repertoire is scheduled, in an eclectic register: poetic improvisations by the dancers of his company with live music, a solo inspired by martial arts, a duet created to the sound of Finnish howlers, or a solo specially designed for the star dancer of the Paris Opera, Hugo Marchand.

Is she considering stopping? “It’s my life!” » she retorts. “I have the will to work because I know I can touch people. What we create with my dancers gives a kind of hope, light, a soul. I am grateful. »

With the piece The Tree, a poetic reflection on nature and humanity – taken up on tour in Reims then in Paris in October – “people say to me: ‘Thank you for giving me emotions’”, she adds.

“Visionary”

The choreographer no longer dances but practices meditation and martial arts – Qi gong, Tai Chi – “because they have to do with nature, the symbolism of the mountain, the tiger, the stones, the earth”. This blonde woman, who looks like Pierrot, does not “consider herself a Buddhist” but “has been following this path since the 1960s”. Carolyn Carlson, on the other hand, continues to express herself through calligraphy and writing, currently putting the finishing touches on her seventh collection of poetry, planned for 2025 (Actes Sud).

“We need poetry today. It’s something open, which gives you a sign that you should listen,” she assures. “I could write poetry, even at 100 years old!” » adds this great admirer of the philosopher Gaston Bachelard, in particular because the latter, “brilliant and witty”, was also interested in this literary genre.

“With my dancers, we start from poetry and, through it, we look for movement,” she says.

Dance “comes from within, from something deep,” emphasizes the woman who, born in California, first studied classical dance in San Francisco and at the University of Utah, then left freed after meeting her “master”, Alwin Nikolais, a great innovative scenographer with creations teeming with lights and colors.

She remembers her beginnings at the Paris Opera in the 1970s, where the director at the time Rolf Liebermann hired her as a “star choreographer” then as director of the institution’s “theatrical research group” and where she shakes up conventions.

“When we started, people were like, ‘What is this?’ » It wasn’t easy. For part of the public, bravos, for another, boos. I introduced improvisation to the French. I didn’t know it but it was a revolution. Rolf Liebermann believed in me, he was a visionary. »

Karine PERRET/AFP