Dance quintet by Maguy Marin

Five men, all of them terrific guys. They play instruments, they talk – to themselves and to each other, and eventually they even dance. A quintet with something special.

»Quoi qu’il en soit« (»Be that as it may«) is the third part of a trilogy, which is not like a traditional trilogy. There is no direct connection between the parts, instead they represent analogies. »Pour ainsi dire« (»So to speak«) is a trio for two men and a woman, »Vaille que vaille« (»Somehow or other«) a woman’s quartet.

The men’s quintet is the most peculiar and in its aesthetics a truly interesting work in every respect. Each part of the trilogy seems to investigate another aspect of our existence, aspects as they may be named: »The art life« (trio), »The private life« (quartet) and »The political life« (quintet).

Maguy Marin, born in Toulouse in 1951, is among the most important choreographers of our time. She began receiving instruction in 1970 from Maurice Béjart at the Mudra-School in Brussels and danced in his world-famous »Ballet of the 20th Century« before she started her own dance company in 1978. After having run the Centre choréographique in Créteil near Paris for 16 years, Maguy Marin has been working in Rillieux-la-Pape near Lyon since 1998. In about 20 years, she produced over 30 works.

»Marin’s dancers play with the audience, ironically, without any pathos, and then for the audience whose breath is taken away when the fear of the extreme right in Europe gets a face, a movement… Following Maguy Marin and her dancers and how they think out loud about man’s place and his relationship to art, the environment, and to politics at the end of the 20th century is one of the most impressive theater experiences in recent years« (Wiebke Hüster, ballett international/tanz aktuell 3/99).