Tirabasso L: Why dance (Choreographical talks)

Why danceSince 2017, the Centre national de littérature has beenpublishing essays that allow writers to reflect on theircreative process and to describe their poetics. So far,12 poetological reflections on literature and theatrehave been published. With Léa Tirabasso's essay Whydance, the CNL is now launching a new series: theChoreographical Talks. How can we talk about dance? And what do we talkabout when we talk about dance? By commissioningchoreographers based in Luxembourg to reflect upontheir art, the CNL's new series tries to provideanswers.Léa Tirabasso studied Modern Literature and Historyof Art in Lyon as well as Contemporary Dance inLondon. In her work, she explores connectionsbetween dance and science, especially medicine. Since2015, she has created several full-lengthchoreographic pieces, among them TOYS (2017), TheEphemeral life of an octopus (2019) and Starving Dingoes(2021). In 2016, she was awarded the Prix Art etLettres of the Institut Grand-Ducal. In her essay Whydance she reflects upon the art of working not withwords, but with movement, gestures and bodies.Dance is so raw and real. It is concrete, alive, graspable. It is the meeting point of the spiritual andthe corporeal, it is the intersection of that cross: the vertical physical world and the horizontalmetaphysical one.Dance defeats time and death.Here is to more dance. The uncanny, the distorted dance.The one that speaks the truth of our human condition through our bodies.The dance that makes you feel like you are alive.As an archive, the CNL preserves the memory of productions and artistic endeavours; withthis new series, it gives movement a voice.