as part of Oltre le mura / Beyond the walls
a project by Fabbrica Europa for Autunno Fiorentino

bang bang is an ordeal, involving a repetition of jumps and athletic motifs and demanding exceptional concentration and physical commitment from the performers.

Gradually, this demand reveals their combativeness, their resilience, but also the flaws of the human performer.

This two-person version adds the idea of experiencing the ordeal together, combining each performer’s strengths and weaknesses.
The rigor of execution meets the sweat. Over the course of 50 minutes, the performers’ identities dissolve.

Continuing to jump becomes at once absurd, poetic, and political.

In addition to an exciting and diverse career as a performer with leading dance companies such as Marie Chouinard, Dominique Porte, Sylvain Émard Danse, Fortier Danse-Création, and Daniel Léveillé, Manuel Roque is also an accomplished choreographer.
In 2013, he founded Compagnie Manuel Roque and presented Project In Situ at Montréal’s Place des Arts. This was followed by Data, presented at Usine C and at the Festival TransAmériques (FTA) in 2014. During the 2014–2015 season, he participated in Migrant Bodies, an international research initiative, where he created Black Matter (2015).
In 2015, he undertook a two-month creative residency at La Fabrik in Potsdam, supported by the CALQ. That same year, he was named a «Bearer of Hope» in the annual selection of the prestigious Tanz magazine. His solo bang bang premiered in Lyon, then at FTA 2017 and Festival June Events in Paris, earning the Best Choreography Award at Les Prix de la Danse de Montréal 2017. In 2018, he was awarded the Studio du Québec à Paris, a six-month residency for research and artistic development, offered by the CALQ and the Cité internationale des arts. His most recent solo, SIERRANEVADA, initially delayed by the pandemic, premiered in 2021 at FTA in Montréal.
Manuel Roque’s choreographies fuse physical virtuosity with a questioning of the human condition. Guided by integrity, curiosity, and generosity, his work opens consciousness and offers poetic, sensitive propositions on our shared experience.

choreography: Manuel Roque
Performers: Nils Levazeux, Manuel Roque
costumes and set design: Marilène Bastien
lighting: Marc Parent
soundtrack: Manuel Roque
rehearsal director and artistic advisors: Sophie Corriveau and Lucie Vigneault
production manager : Judith Allen
executive production and development: DLD
production manager: Mégane Trudeau
coproduction: FestivalTransAmériques (FTA)
with the support of La Fabrik (Potsdam, Allemagne), Maison de la culture Frontenac (Montréal, Canada), Circuit-Est centre chorégraphique (Montréal, Canada), Théatre Hector Charland (L’Assomption, Canada), Les Subsistances (Lyon, France), L’Agora de la danse (Montréal, Canada), Conseil des arts du Canada, Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec et Conseil des arts de Montréal
acknowledgements: Indiana Escach, Élise Bergeron and Alexia Martel

Oltre le mura / Beyond the walls is carried out within the framework of

photo: Sarah Chelhot