© Grégoire Romefort
Having previously immersed herself in the memories of spectators who attended the premiere of The Young Man and Death on June 25, 1946, at Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris, in her work histoire(s) (Kunstenfestivaldesarts, 2004), Olga de Soto focuses her vision on The Green Table (1932), a legendary work by German choreographer Kurt Jooss, which also premiered at the same theater.
Created a few months before Hitler came to power in Germany, this ballet, composed of eight tableaux for sixteen dancers, was inspired by a medieval danse macabre and the political writings of Kurt Tucholsky and Carl von Ossietzky. It is considered one of the most politically engaged works in the 20th-century dance history. The ballet is emblematic not only for its themes—the rise of fascism and war—but also for its depiction of the dark atmosphere that foreshadowed the outbreak of World War II and its prescient vision of the darkness that would define an era.
Along the way, certain key questions have taken shape:
What traces remain in the memory of those who performed a work long ago, or in those who, through their work, ensure its continued existence today? What does transmission entail? What does it mean to be a dancer? What are the place and role of dancers in the history of dance? What impact does a politically engaged work leave in the memory of its audience? How does a dance piece evolve within its own history? And within History itself?
Throughout this documentary performance, driven by a deep desire to share the process, Olga de Soto retraces a complex journey filled with questions, developments, and avenues—some sketched out, others pursued in depth—through a documentary process that resembles a true investigation. She thus explores the performativity of the archive, actively engaging with both collected and created documents, infusing a new dimension into these materials, which form part of our collective memory.