© Catherine Benas - Photo: DR

I approached this work on dance through the study of Laban notation - decryption and writing -, then I collaborated through meetings with choreographers Philippe Decouflé, Herman Diephuis, Rachid Ouramdane, Alban Richard, to experience the work on the body, the scenic space, the composition of a choreographic work, and its restitution.

I continued my research by drawing during the shows (in the dark!). I realize that drawing on the spot produces an effect of excitement, it unites two different behaviors, spectator and actor, combining on paper, entry on stage and development on the notebook.

© Catherine Benas - Photo: DR

I draw blind, then I don't go back over the result except when the works themselves are plunged into a compact darkness, like the play: “The birds / The night” by Nacera Belaza.

For this piece, I had to re-translate the chiaroscuro with black stone, make the fine light of the scene reappear, by erasing the material and finding the white of the paper. The result is a new presence of the choreography, which reveals it a second time.

© Catherine Benas - Photo: DR

The dancers' drawings are reminiscent of movements. In line with my workshop experiments, they do not come directly from the show, but are a series of works already present in my artistic evolution.

In ink or watercolor, they fix fleeting attitudes of forms on paper that work like snapshots. The images obtained come from a relationship between the space of the page and the shape that comes to register there, there is no underlying model, it is to restore an impression that has slowly settled in my memory, this is considered a performance. It's about making a presence appear, not just transcribing the movement.

© Catherine Benas - Photo: DR

In an obscure room, the inevitable imprecision of the drawing is essential, because what is shown is partly produced in spite of me.

I translate movement into a fixed image and from this image, I try to recreate a movement, it's an endless story, a back and forth, whose play between the two states is the climax, where it rocks.

“For a long time I searched for your body in the dark, your smell, your voice.

I searched for your step, watching every noise, waiting for your appearance.

Then, on the paper, with a stroke of a pencil, I scratch; on a canvas with a brushstroke, I brush, I delimit contours, I sketch a presence.

Sometimes I see you around a street, or on a stage, you appear.

In front of you, you display fleeting energy, I dig into the grain of my paper, I try to fix a movement that you propose. I caress with the tip of my pencil, I print a furrow blind. I walk with you in the dark, look for the supports, the tricks, the little ones, the big movements, the expressions, the intentions.

A feeling creeps in, a web is sought, what remains in space when we have lost sight of ourselves.

Then appears a form, a little of its movement, a little of the residue of my mine, a little of you, a little of our memory and despite myself in the dark a presence is revealed. ”