creator
When I make solo performances, I dive into my personal experience in order to tell universal stories. Diverse expressions and views synergize in my presence, enriched by essential artistic collaborations. Producing, writing and conceptualising a show while embodying it as a performer, makes me live the creation process on two trajectories at the same time.
the Memory of Voice
The Memory of Voice (MOV) is a 50 min ritual by a woman able to connect to an infinity of voices, slumbering within her bodily memory. A contrasting landscape of emotions and a multitude of female archetypes unfolds and reminds us of the many others that reside within ourselves. Voices have taught us, sung to us, talked to us. Voices of ancestors, sounds of environments or songs we have listened to. These voices have shaped our lives and form our identity. In a dynamic live performance, expressions such as sighs, shrieks, and laughs share a voice’s journey back to its origin. Breath and movement are knitted together with harmonious melancholic singing and techno beats.
I have created this solo performance in close collaboration with choreographer, vocal researcher and costume maker Michèle Wattez. The Memory of Voice is the sequel project of The Assembly which has been co-created with Charlotte Bruneau. MOV can be performed with or without the surrounding sound carpet and lights.
Currently available for touring.
Project artistic direction Catherine Elsen, Charlotte Bruneau Produced by Pitchblack Collective, CCRD OpderSchmelz Voice, Composition, Performance Catherine Elsen Performance Creation Catherine Elsen, Michèle Wattez Scenography Dovile Gecaite, Serge Ecker, Benu Village Costume, Choreography Michèle Wattez Tech Creators Rokas Kisonas Vaidotas Gruzas, Deividas Dzikevicius Mix Soundtrack Cedric Fischer
The Assembly
The Assembly project is an immersive quest for the human voice at the crossroad between physical and virtual worlds. An installation-based VR experience and performance inspired by the ancient practice of sounding together takes you into the vast lands beneath language, into sonic ecosystems of our timeless vocal territories. This project has been co-created with Charlotte Bruneau and a multidisciplinary team of artists and engineers such as Laura Mannelli, Pouya Ehsaei, Wesley Allsbrook, Madtrix and Gluck Media. The Assembly’s journey started in 2022 being performed at the European capitals of culture Esch2022 and Kaunas2022.
“Catherine Elsen was recently awarded the Young “Talent Prize at the Lëtzebuerger Theaterpräisser 2021. She shows with the project The Assembly that she keeps all her promises. After Soul-Scapes imagined in 2018 with Tania Soubry and Love, Death & Polar Bears in 2019, it makes a fairly spectacular qualitative leap.”
March 2022 La Glaneuse
Love, death and polar bears
“Her performance is an acrobatic exercise in style which is not immune to hilarious, falsely uncontrolled slip-ups. The vocal performance in particular is impressive in the way it switches and distorts its tones and tessitura. The soundtrack, which also features Laurie Anderson, Nina Simone and Wham, is sung a cappella. Elsen convinces both with and without electronic effects.”
April 2019 in La Glaneuse
Produced by Independent Little Lies, CCRD Opderschmelz Concept, music, performance Catherine Elsen Dramaturgical support and visuals Marianne Villière Musical consultant Pouya Ehsaei Costume design Michèle Tonteling Lighting design and technical support Krischan Kriesten
Love, Death and Polar Bears is my first one hour long solo show blending my passion for performance, dark humor and live concert. Drowning polar bears, alternative facts and global politics make us hold our breath. We are shooting towards the apocalypse but still want to be seen, liked and accepted by others. So busy with ourselves, can we devote as much empathy to the world as it asks for? Has the gap between us and the other become too big? Love, Death and Polar Bears is a scream from the tip of an iceberg whose depth none of us can really predict. Schmaltzy pop songs, electronic effects, poetry, humor and pathos create an eclectic concert-performance. Catherine Elsen (the one woman) will make her way through the dried out valleys and defrosting lands of the alienating world we currently live in.
Currently available for touring
