An expected return. After a cancellation in 2020 and a version finally reworked as a show in 2021, the Lyon Dance Biennale parade takes to the streets again, Sunday September 10. Made up of more than 3,000 amateur dancers and musicians, divided into twelve successive groups, the giant choreography promises to be a burst of joy, between Place des Terreaux and Place Bellecour, where more than 200,000 spectators are expected at the start of the year. ‘afternoon.
Scheduled to open the dance festival which runs until September 30, the Lyon Biennale parade represents much more than a festive afternoon. Dances, music and costumes tell the story of hours and months of rehearsals, meetings and volunteer commitment. The parade also results from the mobilization of the surrounding neighborhoods and towns: in addition to the outlying cities of Lyon, the troops come from Annecy, Ardèche, Chambéry and Grenoble.
“When you participate in the parade once, you never forget it. It crosses people’s lives. The care taken is as important as that put into a stage show. Each group builds its own style, like a team that sees each other all year before the big day. Everyone has their own soul,” says Corinne (who, like her colleagues, wished to remain anonymous). A regular at biennials, the costume designer, intermittent in the show, led the sewing workshop of the group from Saint-Fons and Feyzin, to the south of the Lyon metropolitan area.
A matter of family and friendship
The volunteer seamstresses made 160 costumes for the choreography imagined by Karla Pollux and Aurélien Kairo, two artists in residence in Feyzin. “It’s a human adventure. For months, we see each other, we talk, we have fun and we struggle together. Even after the biennial, we continue to check in on us,” confides Nina. The childminder takes part in her ninth parade. She started as a dancer, alone, then with her son, before joining the sewing team this year. The biennial is about family and friendship. Solidarity, a lot. “A teenager who didn’t know where to go came to work with us, he got his professional baccalaureate and he made it his career,”Corinne reports. The seamstresses also remember a very ill friend who held on by participating regularly in the workshop.
Over the months, their place becomes integrated into the neighborhood. Young people knock on the door, looking for a touch-up. At the beginning of July, there is excitement in the Spartan premises in the Clochettes district, in Saint-Fons. It’s time for the final touches after fitting. Each seamstress igns herself a task. Catherine, nicknamed “the Surgeon”, is responsible for carrying out delicate revisions. Normal for this former silk worker who came with her apron. “Everyone does what they know how to do, the team is built little by little”,explains Claire, a former teacher who carefully maintains the table of dancers, divided into several rows, depending on the order of the choreography.
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