TALK "FEMMES, CORPS, LIBERTÉ : COMMENT S’ÉMANCIPER PAR LE GESTE?"
Sunday 25 Aug / 15:45 - 16:45
WITH AMANDINE BUCHARD, LOLA LAFON AND GABRIELLA PAPADAKIS
Motherhood, sexuality, appearance – women’s bodies have always been the object of domination over the centuries. And when they let themselves dance, they are said to be ‘witches’. ‘For me, dance is a bit like my childhood world. And in a family where everyone reads and writes, strangely enough my vocabulary was where there were no words.’ These are the words of author Lola Lafon when she talks about her passion and attempts to get closer to the intimate. How can she explain her appreciation of this wordless world when she plays with it every day? Can movement become a language of freedom, even without a vocabulary? In what way can the assignations and the bodies intertwine with contemporary feminist struggles? For skater Gabriella Papadakis, the first athlete to carry the Olympic flame for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, and judoka Amandine Buchard, the use of their bodies and their movements are an extension of their sporting practice. Like an extension. Impossible to separate, like the walls of a room of one’s own, unfettered. So: movement, writing, emancipation, the same battle?
Amandine Buchard
Olympic medallist judoka
Before winning the Team Gold Medal and the Individual Bronze Medal at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, judokate Amandine Buchard also won the Individual Silver Medal, as well as the Team Gold Medal at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
She trains 6 days a week, alternating between the gym and the tatami, and constantly challenges herself to move faster and beat her own records.
Sporting achievements:
2x Olympic team gold medallist in judo
Olympic silver and bronze medallist in individual judo
3 x Bronze medallist at the World Judo Championships
2 x Gold, 2x Silver and 1x Bronze medallist at the European Judo Championships
Lola Lafon
Feminist author and singer
Lola Lafon grew up in Eastern Europe, between Sofia and Bucharest. She studied dance and music in Paris and New York. With seven novels to date, her literary output is characterised by a great deal of formal research. La petite communiste qui ne souriait jamais (Actes Sud, 2014) has been translated into eleven languages and won a dozen awards, including the Prix de l’Héroïne Madame Figaro, the Prix de la Closerie de Lilas and the Prix Étonnants Voyageurs. Chavirer (Actes Sud, 2020) has been translated in sixteen countries and won the Landerneau prize, the France Culture Télérama prize and the Goncourt choice in Switzerland.) Her latest book, Quand tu écouteras cette chanson (Stock, 2022), has also been translated into many languages and won the Prix Décembre, the Prix des inrockuptibles and the Grand Prix des lectrices de ELLE.
Alongside her literary career, Lola Lafon has written and performed the play Un état de nos vies. This play opened the 2023 season at the Théâtre du Rond-Point, and will be revived at the same venue in September 2024 and on tour in autumn 2024.
Gabriella Papadakis
Multi-titled ice dancer
Gabriella Papadakis is a talented and accomplished French ice dancer who has left her mark on the world of figure skating. A five-time world champion and five-time European champion, she also won the gold medal at the 2022 Olympic Winter Games and the silver medal in 2018.
In addition to her competitive successes, Gabriella has worked on a number of artistic projects, including choreographing an on-ice scene for a film currently in production, as well as creating choreography for top-level skaters Lorine Schild and Léa Serna, French champion and runner-up respectively. Her talent for choreographic composition has also taken her to Japan, where she created choreography for an ensemble number.
With a passion for storytelling, dance, music, theatre and writing, Gabriella Papadakis enjoys exploring her creativity through these multiple mediums. She continues to pursue her artistic career in the hope of inspiring and touching audiences around the world, while humbly contributing to the world of figure skating and artistic creation in general.
