Dances for the Dordogne

follows insights of the 12th – century French troubadour Bernart de Ventadour, his dansa, or balada (“dance songs”)

A multi-layered commissioned live art project by Association Patrimoine et Culture de Mayrinhac Lentour and Marais de Bonnefont Marsh Reserve created by American choreographer lauri stallings alongside a team of international dancers and artists for various historic culture sites and communities in Southern France’s Dordogne Valley. Key works include Sanctuary Series at Bonnefont Fountain, temporary interventions like Amor de Lonh for the spirits of Château de Taillefer, and community – based expressive arts healing at Marais de Bonnefont that explores the marsh and the wisdom of the body in mature, special needs individuals of Foyer Marthe Robin.

Under the supervision of Mayrinhac – Lentour cultural leaders Sandrine Lacoste, Isabelle Clary, Alberte Bergougnoux, Fabienne Sirieys, and Sonia Chassang, Conservatrice, Marais de Bonnefont, this project is being shaped with great care and intention.

Dances for the Dordogne follows insights of the 12th – century French troubadour Bernart de Ventadour, his dansa, or balada (“dance songs”), and Ventadour’s profound influence over American poet W.S. Merwin on the central importance of themes of distance: the distance between the present and the past, the lover and the beloved, and one place and another. Themes of distance deeply resonated with Merwin and can also be felt in stallings’ choreographic work, where distance is a metaphor for a lost past, environmental degradation, and the challenge of connecting across time and space through our bodies.