Lenio Kaklea, Sonates et Interludes

A Bourse de Commerce — Pinault Collection co-production

The Bourse de Commerce — Pinault Collection presents Sonatas and Interludes, a choreography by Lenio Kaklea of John Cage’s eponymous work, envisioned especially for the Museum Rotunda.

In 1938, American composer John Cage (1912-1992) began working on pieces for a “prepared” piano. He placed screws, bits of plastic, wood, and cardboard between the strings of the instrument at very specific places to alter its sound. Ten years later, between 1946 and 1948, he composed one of his signature pieces for this instrument, Sonatas and Interludes, which expressed his interest in the nine emotions classified in ancient Indian philosophy.

Lenio Kaklea asks viewers to consider the indissociable links that bond the transformed body of the piano with that of the dancer. John Cage used this instrument in 1940 when he worked with African-American choreographer Syvilla Fort (1917- 1975) on his piece Bacchanale. The piano’s preparation transforms this melodic instrument into a percussive orchestra whose rhythm associates it to the noises of the city, the force of desire, and the intimacy of our bodies. John Cage’s too-often forgotten collaborations with choreographers such as Syvilla Fort, Pearl Primus, Valerie Bettis, and Hanya Holm punctuated the composer’s work throughout the 1930s and 40s. 

Choreographer Lenio Kaklea has decided to focus on these “lost” (or hardly cited) details of music history to look at this signature work of Cage’s. In the Rotunda at the Bourse de Commerce, she creates a relationship between the structure of the musical composition and a dance that alludes to the presence of sexualised figures from film, jazz, and musical comedy of from that time. The concrete cylinder of the Rotunda rounds out this performance, at once playful, violent, and dramatic, to which the audience bears witness. She dances with – and not over – the Sonatas and Interludes to rewrite a narrative using an embodied, feminist genealogy.

Lenio Kaklea

Lenio Kaklea is a dancer, choreographer, and writer born in Athens, Greece. She lives and works in Paris. She first studied at the National Conservatory of Contemporary Dance in Athens (SSCD), where she studied classical ballet and modern American techniques and repertoires. In 2005 she moved to France, where she studied at the French National Centre of Contemporary Dance (CNDC) in Angers. Lenio Kaklea has worked in different media since 2009: choreography, text, and video. Her artistic practice is inspired by feminism, psychoanalysis, and institutional critique. Her work explores the production of subjectivity through the organised repetition and transmis-sion of movements to reveal the intimate, marginal spaces in which we construct our identities. Alongside her own choreographic work, Kaklea collaborates with other artists, including Boris Charmatz, Alexandra Bachzetsis, Claudia Triozzi, François Chaignaud, Cecilia Bengolea, and Emmanuelle Huynh. In 2013, she began a collaboration with American choreographer Lucinda Childs on Ryoji Ikeda’s music. In 2017, she accompa-nied the creation of Suite No. 3, a staged concert by Joris Lacoste and Pierre-Yves Macé. In 2019, she began to choreograph John Cage’s emblematic work for prepared piano, Sonatas and Interludes.

Music: John Cage

Direction, choreography and interpretation: Lenio Kaklea

Piano: Orlando Bass

Sound: Éric Yvelin

Lighting: Yannick Fouassier

Leather jacket: Pierre Paulin

Clothing: Laszlo Badet

Styling : Lenio Kaklea

Video image: Guillaume Robert

Dramaturgy and research: Lou Forster

Creative assistant : Dimitris Mytilinaios 

Production - Administration : abd / Chloé Schmidt

Co-production : BUDA Kortrijk (BE) and NEXT Festival (BE), Bourse de Commerce - Pinault Collection, Pavillon ADC, Geneva, La Place de la danse- CDCN Toulouse in the framework of the «Accueil Studio» program

Creation residency at Tanzhaus Zürich, ICI - Centre chorégraphique national Montpellier Occitanie / Direction Christian Rizzo in the framework of Par/ICI.

With the support of the DRAC Ile de France as part of the Aide au projet 2021. Sonatas and Interludes also benefited from the availability of studios at the CND Pantin Centre national de la danse