≈ 70 minutes · No intermission
It’s such an honour to bring to Ottawa a vast world of dance, shaped by some of the most gifted and innovative artists working across a broad spectrum of styles and influences. As we continue to search out the best and brightest dance companies to present to you, our wonderfully receptive and enthusiastic audience, we invite you to explore the new and the familiar on this extraordinary journey of life in motion!
Honji Wang and Sébastien Ramirez are fearless: no challenge seems too big for them as they tackle brave and thrilling themes through multiple dance forms. And they are everywhere – creating in France and Germany, touring around the world, and collaborating with a myriad of fantastic international artists. There’s no stopping these clever and ambitious talents and we’re very excited to welcome them back to the NAC!
Enjoy the show!
FUN FACTS!
Sébastien’s inspiration for integrating rigging in this piece came from his friends who work as stunt actors in the cinema industry.
Sébastien and Honji are both polyglots. Between the two of them they speak English, French, Spanish, German and Korean.
Company Wang Ramirez
Last updated: October 29, 2018
Since the creation of Company Wang Ramirez, Honji Wang and Sébastien Ramirez have produced and choreographed highly celebrated dance-theatre pieces, winning awards such as the New York Bessie Award and the nomination for the Rolex Mentor & Protégée Arts Initiative Program.
Acclaimed internationally, the company receives support from important co-producers and is invited in major theatres and festivals, such as Théâtre de la Ville, La Villette and Théâtre National de Chaillot (Paris), Sadler’s Wells (London), Apollo Theater (New York), Mercat de les Flors (Barcelona), amongst others.
Wang and Ramirez developed a conceptual dance performance for the opening celebration of the arts space MADE in Berlin.
In 2015, they contributed to the creation phase in New York City and choreographed for the live show of Madonna’s Rebel Heart Tour 2015/2016.
In 2016, Sadler’s Wells invited them to direct and perform a dance work inspired by Nitin Sawhney’s album Dystopian Dream.
Wang Ramirez never ceases to deepen its quest to find new choreographic languages with a means of expression built on technical virtuosity, poetry, humour and the questioning of human identities.
The duo is currently developing strong artistic collaborations with artists from a variety of fields.
Borderline
Borderline marks a turning point in Sébastien Ramirez and Honji Wang’s research and choreographic language. The dance expands in a dialogue between technique and the art of rigging, while the reflection on human relationships now includes the reality of living together in our democracies. Social boundaries are evoked by the interplay of physical forces on the stage as well as through testimonies – collected from the dancers’ friends and relatives, or from the media, and broadcast in voice over.
The rigging element allows to approach weightlessness and to create a timeless poetics. In the interaction with the rigger, the body becomes the object of a ’weight game’ of balance and freedom. Attached to cables, the five dancers bring to light and transpose the desire of freedom inherent in all forms of dance, especially hip-hop. With a wealth of experience in levitation, hip-hop discovers new ways to thwart gravity in its virtuosity of footwork.
The gestures and the costumes create images that reflect Greek and Korean traditions, animality, as well as our own desires and angst. Between the promise of freedom and the violence of keeping our bodies on the ground, is a space allowing the invention of a new gestural approach. With great fluidity, the piece displays accents of acrobatics, visual poetry and the urban universe. It extends to the ground where the gravitational borderlines shift horizontally, in a mobile scenography that continues to evolve throughout the performance.
Honji Wang
Honji Wang is a dancer, choreographer and artistic director born and raised in Germany by Korean parents.
Her dance language is an abstraction of hip-hop dance and has influences of earlier martial arts and ballet training. She is recognized as an artist who brings contemporary and hip-hop together in an exceptionally organic fashion.
Together with Sébastien Ramirez, Honji Wang received the Bessie Award 2013 as “Outstanding Performer” following the presentation of AP15 at the Apollo Theatre in New York. Their work Monchichi was one of the 2017 Bessie Award nominees for “Outstanding Production” following its performance at BAM Fisher.
Wang was invited to Madonna’s final auditions in New York, where her outstanding performance earned her an invitation to tour and perform for the Rebel Heart Tour.
She was invited as a guest artist to perform a duo with acclaimed British choreographer Akram Khan titled The Pursuit of Now, which was accompanied by well-known pianist Shahin Novrasli. She also collaborated with the most avant-garde female flamenco dancer Rocío Molina in the duet Felahikum as well as with New York City Ballet principal dancer Sara Mearns in the duet No.1.
Sébastien Ramirez
Born in the south of France, Sébastien Ramirez is an internationally renowned dancer, choreographer and artistic director.
Ramirez specializes in the use of aerial work as well as choreographic rigging development.
Since the foundation of his company, he developed a new vision of space and choreography, bringing hip-hop dance to a wider and new audience.
Following the presentation of AP15 at the Apollo Theatre in New York, Sébastien Ramirez and Honji Wang received the Bessie Award 2013 as “Outstanding Performers.” Their work Monchichi was one of the 2017 Bessie Award nominees for “Outstanding Production” following its performance at BAM Fisher.
Ramirez contributed to the creation phase of Madonna’s Rebel Heart Tour in New York City and choreographed for her live show. He also conducted a personal training on floorwork movement for the creation of Akram Khan’s solo DESH.
Ramirez was also invited by Sadler’s Wells as one of the five choreographers of RIOT Offspring, a unique dance piece performed to Igor Stravinsky’s iconic The Rite of Spring played by British chamber orchestra Southbank Sinfonia.
Louis Becker
Louis Becker has a strong base in b-boying and broadened his artistic expressions with contemporary dance, acrobatics and drama. Winner of an impressive number of battles, he is also part of different contemporary dance productions of Company Constanza Macras, touring internationally.
Johanna Faye
Johanna Faye has her dance roots in breaking, with strong experiences in contemporary dance and improvisation. Johanna has been working with choreographers like Amala Dianor, Jérémie Belingard, Tishou Aminata Kane et Sylvain Groud.
Saïdo Lehlouh
Saïdo Lehlouh is a charismatic b-boy who was spotted early for his extraordinary dance skills, stage presence and interpretation. From the very beginning, he participated at important dance theatre productions with artists such as Storm (Théâtre de Chaillot, Paris; National dance center CND in Pantin; Hebbel am Ufer, Berlin), Constanza Macras (Berlin) or Norma Claire (French Guiana).
Alister Mazzotti
Stunt coordinator Alister Mazzotti received global recognition for his work with a Taurus World Stunt Award nomination in 2012 and four nominations for the German Television Academy (DAFF) since 2013. During his 23-year-long career he has coordinated stunts for renowned action directors such as Chad Stahelski, Jeff Imada, David Leitch, Nik Powell and Steve Griffin and has headed stunt departments in 16 different countries. He is a board member of the German Stunt Association.