Highlighting the athleticism within dance and giving the choreographic material a sportlike, competitive quality that tied it thematically to the music became the starting point for the piece. This led to the idea to have four short duets that would enter from one side of the stage and, after dancing, exit on the other side, giving the audience the image of cyclists racing by them. Two exercise bikes were used as props, which the dancers would ride and race each other on before dancing. As one couple would leave the bikes and begin dancing, the next couple would already be on the bikes, applying a sense of pressure on those dancing, as their competitors. This racing structure of the piece created an intention of urgency for the dancers, adding a heightened dynamism to their movements.


Music: Prologue, Tour de France (Etape 1) by Kraftwerk
Video: Jørund Langeggen
Dancers: Martelle Cho, Andrew Coffey, Simon McNally, Shaakir Muhammad,
Elise Nøkling-Eide, Erika Pastel, Mathias Tannæs, Qu Xi
Photography: Helena Byrt

Tour de France (part 1) - rehearsal

Beginning with the idea to reflect the call and response structure of the music through movement, the choreographic material was created in two different ways. The call material came from adjusted improvisation from each dancer, whereas the response material was set and taught. This made the call material more eclectic and individual whilst giving the response material a greater sense of stylistic and group cohesion.

The learning focus for the dancers was to expand their repertoire of movement to include a more grounded quality with explosive entry into motion and controlled falling. The dancers also played with varying degrees of awkwardness within groove steps by disturbing their vertical axes, making veering, leaning movements. The work song lyrics of the music gave the choreography a context, within which the physicality and heaviness of the movement also reflects the strain and fatigue of manual labour, deliberately revealing the work within dance and characterising the dancers as labourers of movement.

Music: Day-O (The Banana Boat Song) by Harry Belafonte
Dancers: Kunsthøgskolen i Oslo
Photography: Helena Byrt