The unusual show, created in 2023, was called Birthday Party. It brought together eight performers aged 67 to 79, auditioned out of three hundred people. At the helm of this special evening where we no longer counted the candles: choreographer Angelin Preljocaj. For the first time in more than thirty years of work and fifty creations, this leading figure featured amateurs over 65 years old with tact and precision.
This delicate artistic and human undertaking was documented by director Valérie Müller, who signed this film entitled The Force of Age. His empathetic gaze and his quietly immersive camera envelop and support the confidences and developments of these late dancers, from auditions to performances. “I told myself ‘be authentic,’” says Patricia, 70. “Use everything you’ve been through,” because I wanted to succeed. »
Patricia was chosen for “her energy, her spontaneity, which can unite the group”, underlines Preljocaj, who explains her approach: “I will design the show according to the people I have chosen, I have no a priori. I am looking for different personalities, representative of all life trajectories, of all social backgrounds. »
Try the challenge
What a magnificent skewer gathered here! Mario, 69 years old, former worker turned actor, meets Bruce, 72 years old, modern jazz teacher, but also Roberto, 72 years old, doctor, and Maïté, 79 years old, retired from the City of Paris, as well as Elli, 67 years old , a well-known Franco-Uruguayan singer and actress in the 1980s. In rehearsal at the Pavillon noir, a national choreographic center based in Aix-en-Provence (Bouches-du-Rhône) and directed by Angelin Preljocaj, the small, ephemeral troupe, excited and under pressure to take up the challenge of creation, sticks together in good humor and working hard. Attentive, the choreographer puts them at ease.
When Elli, who has hearing problems, worries and wonders if she can continue the physically demanding adventure of this show, he finds the words that soothe. “We are not here to suffer, but to work and develop something that we hope will be beautiful,” he slips.
The making of Birthday Party forces us to confront aging, wrinkles that crease the flesh, muscles that fall, sexuality and desire… Elli confides: “It made me go on a journey to really look at myself. Yes, my body is like that now. What am I going to do with my body as it is? » And Mario sums up the project as follows: “Angelin asks us to sublimate our bodies. » By making the singularity of each person sparkle, whether in the costume of a Pierrot, a female ninja or a futuristic latex creature, Preljocaj illuminates the circle of time.