Who is this mysterious woman called Gustavia? Is she laughing or crying? Or is she just being cynical on inexhaustible topics such as womanhood, death, theater, the arts and the artist’s position in society? Gustavia brings together two extraordinary choreographers of different artistic trajectories who share similar concerns regarding the future of dance and performance art.

Gustavia draws on traditional burlesque by appropriating inventively some of its characteristic codes and techniques. Elements of burlesque which run through film (Peter Sellers, Jacques Tati, the Marx Brothers, Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin, Nanni Moretti,...), theater, performance art (Leo Bassi, Anna and Bernard Blume,...) as well as the visual arts (Bruce Nauman,...) are transformed into a kind of “body-burlesque” which is rooted in squandered energy, repetition and accident. While humor is conspicuous in burlesque it is hidden in dance, and this is precisely what the two choreographers aim to extract.

Concept, Performance & Choreography: Mathilde Monnier & La Ribot | Light Design: Éric Wurtz | Sound realization: Olivier Renouf | Stage design realization: Annie Tolleter | Costume Design: Dominique Fabrègue / Assisted by: Laurence Alquier | Music: Mouse on Mars, Square Pusher, Cristian Vogel, Mathiew Ship, Olivier Renouf |Technical Director & Lighting manager:Sound Manager: Marc Coudrais | Stage Manager: Jean-Christophe Minart | Production: Jean-Marc Urrea, Michel Chialvo, Anne Fontanesi | Communication / Press: Vincent Cavaroc | Co-Production: Festival Montpellier Danse 2008, Centre Pompidou - Les Spectacles Vivants / Festival d'Automne / Théâtre de La Ville – Paris, Centre de Développement Chorégraphique - Toulouse / Midi-Pyrénées, Culturgest Lisbonne, La Comédie de Genève, Mercat de Les Flors – Barcelone, La Ribot Genève, Centre Chorégraphique National de Montpellier Languedoc-Roussillon | Première: festival montpellier danse 08 for this project, La Ribot is supported by la Ville de Genève, la République et Canton de Genève, and Pro Helvetia, Swiss Arts Council Thierry Cabrera |

La Ribot is a Spanish-born choreographer and performer who lives in Geneva; she is renowned for her solo performances, which are full of humor and eccentricity, subversive in form and content, fusing dance, performance, painting and video. Her works have been performed in contemporary art galleries and museums, including the Tate Modern in London, and theatres, including the Théâtre de la Ville in Paris. In 2000, she was awarded the National Dance Award in Spain.

Mathilde Monnier, a point of reference in the international dance scene, belongs to the generation of choreographers who gave contemporary dance in France its actual status. Since 1994, she is the director of the National Choreography Centre in Montpellier and has been awarded with many international prizes and distinctions. Her work reflects intense thinking and a poetic idiom, in which music plays a prominent role. In recent years, she has been working with major artists from all genres.

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