XX with Alice

The young French dancer Julie Nioche received her dance education at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris, and went on to develop her skills through collaborations with such important choreographers as Meg Stuart, Alain Buffard, Catherine Contour, Emmanuelle Huynh, and Jennifer Lacey. In 1996, Nioche, together with Rachid Ouramdane, co-founded the research and production institute L'Association Fin Novembre. A psychology and osteopathy student, she also runs therapeutic workshops for people with eating disorders; in this way, she connects her studies and her creative work through concentrated reflection on the body: body image, the transformation of the body and the identity crises that arise from society's ubiquitous emphasis on the body. "Our investment in the body seems to reflect the relationship we have with the world" (Julie Nioche).

The female chromosome, cell, tissue, organ, body. Interest in the body - its formation and transformation - is the central theme of XX, a performance that is "concise, funny, lively, serious, sharp, impertinent, and possesses hair-raising charm." Julie Nioche is interested in the body, its surface, the appearance of the mouth, arms, legs, skin… Is the body something composed of such parts or does each of them lead a separate life? "A wrist erect like a cockerel, an expectant ankle poised between steadiness and hesitation, or the perplexed nape of a neck are among the many anecdotes that serve to dislocate the body of the story" (Herve Gauville, Libération).

The performance space recalls a sculptor's studio or a cosmetic surgeon's operating room, as the two dancers (Nioche and Barbara Manzetti) shed their synthetic skins in an intimate atmosphere and transform their naked bodies using, among other things, latex prosthetics, herbal pitch and adhesive tape.
The search for the perfect female body intentionally ignores the body as a subjective space. The concern with external body image and its modification is a reflection of modern society, which has turned the body into a spectacle by means of fashion-industry strategies, nutrition and socialisation rules. The body as we see it or the body as we experience it? The body is trapped in a paradox, since it serves both as "a closed system and a means of communication" at one and the same time.
Nina Meško

XX with Alice is a performance based on a work titled XX, created by Julie Nioche and Barbara Manzetti in 2002. The performers will appear in Ljubljana accompanied by musician Alice Daquet, who recently presented a concert at Nouveau Casino in Paris. During this improvisation, the performers will re-use movements from XX, although without the 'folding screens' of the original version. The two individuals in XX with Alice revive in an attempt to transform the present: each movement may be understood as a series of inner images just beginning to form. How do you find your way within the paradox of the body (the subject of both communication and reservation simultaneously), if not by playing with different images linked to images of the visible body.

Concept: Julie Nioche
Performed by: Julie Nioche, Barbara Manzetti
Sound improvisation: Alice Daquet
Technical operator: Jean Michel Hugo
Production management: Association Fin Novembre

Organisation: City of Women
In co-operation with: Cankarjev dom
With the support of: Adria Airways