Rituels

“Modernisation, urbanisation, globalisation: there’s no denying the fact that the life of social communities still revolves around rites and rituals, well beyond the confines of religion.” This is how Anne Décoret Ahiha introduces the theme of ritual on the video platform numeridanse.tv, echoing the analysis of British anthropologist Mary Douglas: “As a social animal, man is a ritual animal. If ritual is suppressed in one form, it crops up in others, more strongly the more intense the social interaction”.
This new sequence of programming at CN D invites the public to reflect on this articulation between the learned and the popular, exoticism and code, appropriation and sharing, or the public and the intimate. Through a three-stage programme – a month of shows, an exhibition and an international symposium – the CN D will transform into a field of experimentation and discovery, a place for reflection as well as interaction, where audiences, artists, researchers and amateur dancers will all find opportunities to be together.
In an era marked by crises, we need to look around us as much as we need to look inwards, and perhaps even reinvent a common ritual?
The ritual of coming together to discover and think collectively?