CIE. NON NOVA

L’après-midi d’un foehn is a visual story for children over five years old in which an artificial tornado gives life to a ballet of plastic nymphs, orchestrated by an actress-puppeteer. The choreography involves a puppeteer and her puppets, a ventilation system, and various props: plastic bags, a coat, scissors, a roll of sticky tape, a stick and an umbrella. Accompanied by the notes of three pieces by Debussy – Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun, Nocturnes and Dialogue of the Wind and the Sea – a dance teacher creates a choreography performed by plastic dancers propelled by currents of air. Without any need to establish contact, or barely touching them, the air is filtered like a flow of blood through the puppets, which become more and more human. Through the manipulation, evolution and transformation of the plastic bags, a relationship is built up between manipulator and puppet. Here the adventure begins. We witness chance meetings determined by thermal phenomena, a dancing-star is born before our eyes, there is a pas de deux here and a burst of fireworks there, and a monster lurking…

The Non Nova company is a heterogeneous group of artists of both sexes, different ages and experience, united by the desire to give the audience the opportunity to experience new and unexpected sensations. It was founded in 1998 by Phia Ménard with the aim of tackling the art of juggling, its stage treatment and its dramatic structure from another standpoint. “Non nova, sed nove” (It’s not new, just seen differently) is the company’s founding principle. Its works have been staged worldwide.

Performance Cécile Briand alternating with Silvano Nogueira

Production team

Artistic direction, choreography and set design Phia Ménard
Soundtrack composition Ivan Roussel using music by Claude Debussy

Co-production and residencies Le Centre Dramatique National de Normandie (National Dramatic Centre of Normandy), and La Brèche (Circus Arts Centre for Basse-Normandie) in Cherbourg.
Co-production Le Quai in Angers (EPCC – Le Quai, Angers, and the European network IMAGINE 2020 – Art et Changement Climatique), Scènes du Jura, La Halle aux Grains (the national theatre of Blois), Jules Verne Circus (Regional Centre for Circus Arts in Amiens), Le Grand T (the Loire-Atlantique space for subsidised creation in Nantes), Théâtre Universitaire of Nantes, L’Arc (subsidised performance space in Rezé), Parc de la Villette in Paris, La Verrerie in Alès (Cévennes)/Pôle National des Arts du Cirque de Languedoc-Roussillon (National Centre for the Circus Arts in Languedoc-Roussillon).
Residency “Les Subsistances” 2010/2011, Lyon, France
Supported by Théâtre de Thouars, a subsidised performance space, in collaboration with the Cultural Services of Montreuil-Bellay, Le Grand R (national theatre of La Roche-sur-Yon), Le Fanal (national theatre of Saint-Nazaire).

The Non Nova company is subsidised by the Ministry of Culture and Communication / DRAC des Pays de la Loire, Conseil Régional des Pays de la Loire (Regional Council for the Pays de la Loire), Conseil Général de Loire-Atlantique (General Council for the Loire-Atlantique region) and Nantes City Council.

The company is supported by the Institut Français (France’s international cultural relations body) and the Foundation BNP Paribas. The company is based in Nantes.

Warm thanks to Pierre OREFICE, to the teachers and pupils at the Gaston Serpette School in Nantes (the nursery classes and the youngest class in the primary section 2008/2009), to Pierre WATELET and Mathilde CARTON from the Natural History Museum of Nantes, and to Pascal LEROUX from Collectif la Valise in Nantes.

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