6 QUESTIONS: Cedric Andrieux - La MaMa Moves! Dance Festival

photo by Jamie Roque de la Cruz

French dancer Cedric Andrieux presents LES COMMUNS, a duet with Christophe Ives exploring "the encounter with the other," May 16-18, as part of both the La MaMa Moves! Dance Festival and DANSE: A French-American Festival of Performance and Ideas. Here, he answers our six questions.

1. What is the history of your collaboration with Christophe Ives and what inspired you to make a duet exploring "the possibilities and limits" of your relationship?

Christophe and I have been friends for a very long time, since our time at the Paris National Conservatory of Music and Dance in the mid-90's. We remained friends all that time, but never got a chance to work and dance together. So this desire was the initial starting point for us. Early on in the process, our relationship revealed itself as an important component of whatever this piece would become, and so it needed to be addressed. It turned out to take a pretty central part in our process, and to be an issue complex enough, this relationship of ours. We were long time friends, but in this space, the dance studio, we had to find a new way to connect, we had to let go of who we thought the other one was, based on some very old memories, rebuild from scratch, and create some new common ground.

2. Do you find audiences in France and the US to have different tastes or reactions?

I think more than taste or reaction, it is mostly their expectation that is, to me, slightly different. For whatever cultural or historical reason, in France, people tend to be more critical, more precise in what they want to see, whereas, in the US, I do feel an openness to whatever is to come. There is less of an urge to judge, but more a will to understand.

3. What is most exciting and most challenging about performing a duet?

Mostly the relationship that first is created in the process of making the work, and then to see how this relationship evolves in the performance, in front of an audience. The challenging part is to use this relationship to help us create a dialogue with the audience, to bring the audience inside, with us. 

4. When did you know that you would that you wanted a career in the arts? 

My desire was actually not a career in the arts, per se. I only wanted to become a dancer. It is only as I became one that I started to open up my vision to the arts in a broader sense. The difficulty is to find ways to keep the desire alive as more questions arise throughout one's career.

5. Which artists have been inspiring you recently?

A few performances have stayed with me that I have seen recently: "Perturbation" from Krystian Lupa, "Germinal" from Antoine Defoort and Halory Goerger, "Doing While Doing" from Daniel Linehan, "The Second Freedom" from Leja Jurisic and Teja Reba, among others....

6. What does performing at La MaMa mean to you?

It will be the first time. Christophe and I are incredibly grateful to (La MaMa Moves! Curator) Nicky Paraiso for taking the chance to present our work. Our experience so far with the LaMaMa team as been fantastic, and we are so excited to come and perform here!

La MaMa presents 

Les Communs

May 16 – 18, 2014 
Friday & Saturday @ 7:30pm / Sunday @ 4pm

The First Floor Theatre @ La MaMa
74A East 4th Street
(between Bowery and Second Avenue)
New York, NY 10003

Tickets: $15 Adults / $10 Students and Seniors; ten tickets priced at $10 are available, in advance, for every performance via web, phone or box office as part of La MaMa's 10@$10 ticketing initiative. 10@$10 tickets not available day of show. 

For Tickets and Info: CLICK HERE