"5'33 seconds" a solo
How to do a solo if you are never alone with yourself? how to do a solo if you are yourself already several people? Coming back to the canonical form of the contemporary dance "Five minutes thirty three" is emphasize the paradoxes and the absurdity.
While the work seems to be foremost an interior dialogue, we could realise very fast that there are more people on stage that we could believe when this sentence is said: "She is wondering how many gestures and persons she has in the mind."
We could discover later that the work is articulated around the way back of the individual and the group, in between inclusion and exclusion of the gaze.
The solitude here is a dynamical force, necessary for the making of the individual.

 Concept and performance : nicky miller
 Dramaturgy, assistance : Florent Delval
 Texts: nicky miller & Florent Delval
 Translations live : Teresa Acevedo (spanish), An Mertens (deutsch), Michel Yang (english).
 Costume :   Patricia Fernandez

Co-production : La Casa Encendida (Madrid)
Thanks to APT and De Singel (Anvers)

 Part 1 : live : adresses to the audience (extract)

" It's a lot of people for a solo.
  It's a lot of people with me on stage…
  It's a lot of people with me in this room..
  Also, I'm thinking  to be alone tonight.
  Just for a moment.
  Would you mind going out for a moment ?
  You in the room.
  You too at the control room
  You too (to the translator)
  Take a moment for a pause. Do what you like...
  But try not to make too much noise.

 
  THANK YOU, I WILL BE BACK WITH YOU IN FEW MINUTES."

Part 2 : reading a letter to the audience cf : french version + flemmish version
Dearest
Thank you, to be here tonight, thank you to share a moment with me.
During the one year that I have been making this solo, I couldn’t  help to think about you.
You were always here in this room, sitting down like you are now.
During the one year I have been making this solo, I think of all these voices that i had recorded , all these interviews I spoke to you about. But I didn’t know what to do with it.
There is only my voice which resound with now.
But if I try to make a solo, it is because I am supposed to be an artist of the solitude , no ?
An artist of the solitude.
And while you were behind the door  tonight, I was here alone and I knew it was finally a moment for myself. I did what i wanted to do, but I won’t tell you what exactly.
You know, even when I was alone in the dance studio, to rehearse the same gesture, i couldn’t afford to be totally alone until this short moment that you offered me tonight.
By the way this game, that I showed you last time, I invented it when I was alone  in the studio : behind each gesture , I have to say where it is coming from , behind each  gesture, i am looking at other people.

Here…

And here…

And here…

And here again…

The true solo, finally you won’t see it, inevitably , it is impossible.
But to give you an idea of this perfect solitude, think about these moments when..
When  it is getting dark and the show is beginning,
When you fall asleep in the warm and comfortable boredom of the theater room, and that your thoughts are falling over each other,
When you look at  a white wall during 15 mns and you see into it a colored landscape.
When you are waiting for a bus who’s bringing you to the airport and you could imagine this country that you don’t know yet.
When the landscapes of the train are a comtemplative road movie.
When you watch a Rhomer movie before a first meeting.
When you think that your identity is going to change while you're reading a
Philip K Dick novel.
When you are walking into the amazon forest and that you are meeting an unknown animal.
When you spend an afternoon  looking for the perfect pebble.
When you jump above water puddles to avoid some childish perils.
When you are rollerblading in New York City without a map and that you land on the big wheel of Cosny Island.
When you start to read :
 «  A long time , I was waking up early » and you finish 2403 pages later. »
When you are starting a glider and you make it run as long as possible
When you are playing a Lou Reed song with a folk guitar on a railway bridge.
When you remember of each dance that you have done over one year.

I don’t know if I will send to you this letter, finally, I think I will keep it for myself.