The Falling Stardust

“Opening up the horizon, complicating the way we see: the choreographer Amala Dianor is alwaus trying to go farther. Between hip hop and contemporary dance, fed by African influences as well, notably the Senegalese sabaar dance, his supple, acrobatic movements flow with a pleasing grace and class.”

“I had a lot of cancellations this year, but not many postponements,” he continued. “Being at the TCE with the dancers, who were not employees, they were on unemployment and in financial peril, and whom I had not seen since March -- is fantastic. Whether they’re there in person or remotely, they are with us and they give meaning to our profession.” Interview by Rosita Boisseau

and Brigitte Salino

“Amala Dianor is clearly going places, he was invited to perform at the Maison de la Danse in Lyon and at the Montpellier Festival last year; a hybridization is possible, partly because of his solid ballet training and technique: his Falling stardust is a great platform for flying bodies. His willingness to commit to helping a number of young dancers has generated some promising results, notably in West Africa where he often works.”

Jacqueline Thuilleux

“Finally, Amala Dianor’s dancing is quieter than what we are used to -- (…) Here he presents his first official work, in which he deconstructs the academic side of ballet in The Falling Stardust, symbolically fairly significant here. The dancers are all in black, dancing to sporadically symphonic music, the movement is hybrid, crossing lines all over the place. Unsettling, Amala Dianor proves emphatically that ballet, contemporary dance and hip hop dance can work together quite well.”

François Delétraz

“The confrontation of hip hop with ballet movements and vocabulary which uses arabesques as perfect lines offer fleeting images which are sometimes too predictable. Happily there are flashes of nervous energy driving the pace of the work.”

R.BU

“The stated goal: ‘having a grouping of vocabularies and aesthetics in order to find -- then lose -- structures we are used to using’ while clearly stepping away from the question of virtuosity.”

Lise Ott

“With The Falling Stardust, as with most of my pieces,” he says, “I try to build a rapport between the dancers onstage. The dialogue is not only with the audience; I want the dancers to realize they are not alone onstage, that they must interact with the others. There’s a sort of double perspective.”

Interview with Olivier Frégaville-Gratian d’Amore

“The range of the vocabulary, the ease in passing from one register to another, the ability to fuse the varying styles in order to form a homogenous ensemble -- drive this mystical journey. There is an abundance of energy, variations in the shapes and movements and arrangements of the bodies.”

Thomas Hahn

“Their gazing deep into the audience gives them a sort of anchor point to work with. But when we look at the others, the markers change slightly. Looking at someone else and moving while doing so, destabilizes and refracts their points of contact -- this was an important part of the dancers’ work, along with the need for them to engage intellectually, to make decisions, to react to others’ actions.”

Nathalie Yokel

“Onstage I seek to validate the individual, the dancer, to bring each of them to a space less about virtuosity than vulnerability -- so they may be seen differently.”

“The work is about both strength and fragility, doubt and conviction, in its answer to the renewed challenge of a shared open form of dance.”

“Always engaged, the powerful hybrid dancing of Amala Dianor gracefully constructs bridges between aesthetic concepts, to the great delight of the spectator.”

“This choreography is again a story involving encounters, improbable yet credible.”

“This is a group work with a balletic influence. Its original idea was to move the technique somewhere else; I wanted to invite dancers to work with who had confirmed talent in a specific dance form, be it contemporary, ballet or hip hop. These forms are generally seen in works based on just one of the techniques, but here they combine into a new form, including the dancers’ personalities, stepping into spaces where they feel more vulnerable, as it is not just their virtuosity which is visible and at stake.”

Thomas Hahn

“His declared objective: to tell his own stories, going beyond technique, finding meaning another way, creating choreography in which the dancers are dancing selflessly, giving their all.”

Lise Ott