«I dreamed that God had Alzheimer’s
disease, that he did not remember the
name or face of his children, that he had
forgotten their existence.»
C. Bobin

The Yann Lheureux Company is embarking on a new cycle of research and exploration on the subject of memory and its relation to identity, to the body and to territory. “Aside from the fact of being personally affected by Alzheimer’s through my mother’s diagnosis, and having followed the disease’s evolution and transformation of a number of years, it is as an artist that I have decided to approach this work.

We react to the immediate effects of the illness, and its diverse causes lead us to ask further questions. There is the effect on memory first of all, and issues of health in general, the ageing process, the family, pollution, lifestyle, genetics, all come into the equation…
This illness is marked by the losses that it occasions: the disappearance of memory, of identity, of spatial awareness, of certain activities, of social life. At the same time there is the emergence of other phenomena: a “new” identity, other activities – a kind of quintessence of the moment. The second phase will be the creative process, working towards the production of my solo “Ici Soit-il” (‘The Way We Are”) and the group piece “Les Oubliés”  ‘The Forgotten’). It is not my intention to dance in place of those who are suffering, but rather in their name. The Performance Piece The piece will involve a group of mixed-generation performers.

The group will collectively search individual memory, to find their bearings in relation to the memory of a residential urban area. In searching for clues in their environment, they will remind us of their individual experiences and their relationships by sharing fragments of their stories with us, involving patients, their helpers, their carers. The Performance space The chosen performance space will represent, in its past or present form, the duality between heritage and the impulse towards modernity. It will be a clearly defined, marked out area, where performers and spectators inter-mingle. The space will be danced upon, explored from all angles, turned aside from its habitual functions and usage. How can performers naively question the space and the memory it holds?