In 2016, Patrice de Bénédetti, a kindred spirit who we met at the festival when he performed with the company Ex Nihilo invited us to this magnificent choreographic declaration with this “solo” developed for the symbolic site of a War Memorial. This vibrant tribute to Jean Jaurès, as well as to his father and “all the Jean’s and Hans’s who went off to war”, is a reminder of the great social struggles that are still being waged today. However the piece is first and foremost a magnificent choral text from the Marseille native, with its harsh poetry and haiku-inspired tense scansion. In response, a body carried by fervour, at times disjointed or aided by crutches, slips between the words, illustrating and rearing its head in forms derived from Japanese Butoh.

This tired soldier travels through time to make us think about the unspeakable devastation of the First World War (the play was created for the Centenary of 1914), but also about the permanent nature of the great social battles, and the memory of the proletarian struggle that ended up becoming cannon fodder. Between tenderness, incandescence and benevolence, the dancer, choreographer and author celebrates giving and hope in a finely crafted show, full of delicacy and sensitivity. The brilliantly choreographed performance re-appropriates a place of remembrance and meditation and will return to its original stage at the Cimetière de l’Est in Rennes.