Exploding onto the new performance season at REDCAT, France’s contemporary dance “enfant terrible,” Christian Rizzo, brings his tribe of eight men onto the stage to present “d’aprés une histoire vraie (based on a true story)” for four shows Thursday through Saturday at 8:30 p.m. and Sunday at 7 p.m.
Accompanied onstage by two percussionists playing what promotional materials describe as “energizing tribal rock music,” influential rock/industrial metal composers Didier Ambact and King Q4 fill the theater with a testosterone-rich soundscape that surrounds the movement. Drawing from Turkish folk dances and mixing that with a contemporary dance vocabulary, the men create a “raw explosion of pleasure that is absolutely irresistible.” Mr. Rizzo has created this ritual-like combination of foot-pounding and pelvis-undulating dynamics to address ideas about community and the “other,” a pertinent topic across the globe.
Rizzo began his performance career as a rock musician, extending that into fashion design and then as a dancer, costumer and composer with several notable French dance companies. Previously the artist in residence at L’Opéra de Lille, he is currently head of the prestigious Centre Choréographique National (CNN) of Montpellier, France.
It’s not too often that REDCAT’s curator, Mark Murphy, brings European dance into his theater, so this event must be quite special.
—Benn Widdey, Culture Spot LA
REDCAT is located at 631 W. SeconD St., LA 90012.
Tickets are $12-$30 and can be purchased at https://web.ovationtix.com/trs/pr/962842
More information is available at https://www.redcat.org/event/christian-rizzo-ici-ccn-montpellier-france
Photo by Marc Domage