LARA BARSACQ

Even before becoming the legendary performer of Les Ballets Russes and the muse of Serge de Diaghilev, Ida Rubenstein had already made her breakthrough entry on the choreographic scene in 1908: in Oscar Wilde’s famous Dance of the Seven Veils of Salomé, she stripped completely naked, brilliantly offering up the first contemporary feminist performance. A frontrunner defying all taboos – even in her love life – she was also an influential patron of Parisian life and the sponsor and dedicatee of Maurice Ravel’s Bolero, in which she performed. Lara Barsacq pays tribute to this emblematic figure of creative freedom in IDA. Beyond the outrageous artist, she testifies to the life of a woman who, for a long time, has been a vibrant source of inspiration for her. With love and humour, she narrates, dances, imitates and talks about her with Marta Capaccioli and Marion Sage, like a conversation between friends. Like her role model, she does not hesitate to unleash a provocative side, with the body undressed or covered in glue before a tapestry representing a cheetah, a nod to the baby feline that accompanied Ida everywhere she went. However, alongside her two accomplices, she also enjoys humming songs of their own, with simple and poetic lyrics – evoking the absent.

Lara Barsacq

Trained in contemporary dance at the CNSMD in Paris, she joined the Batsheva Dance Company between 1992 and 1996, before devoting herself to choreography until 2004. She then worked as a performer, notably for Jérôme Bel. Since 2018, the great-grandniece of costume designer Léon Bakst has created the solo Lost in Ballets russes (2018), the trio IDA don’t cry me love (2019), the quartet Fruit Tree (2021) and the piece for six performers La Grande Nymphe, premiered in May 2023 as part of the Kunstenfestivaldesarts. From 2020 to 2022, Lara Barsacq was an associate artist at Charleroi danse. From 2024 to 2028, Lara Barsacq will work in partnership with the Théâtre de Liège.