Jonas Chér­eau is work­ing on a cho­reo­graph­ic and music­al trio inspired by his research into joy and laughter. An act of col­lect­ive res­ist­ance through dance, farce, the art of coun­ter­point, fantasy and lightness.

What trig­gers laughter? What is the shape of a happy body? At what point does a situ­ation flip towards com­edy? These are the ques­tions that run through Jonas Chéreau’s latest cre­ation, in keep­ing with his artist­ic approach that puts abstrac­tion and the absurd at the fore­front. The cho­reo­graph­er draws inspir­a­tion from the thera­peut­ic prac­tice of laughter yoga, as well as from research, encoun­ters and per­son­al exper­i­ence. Joie is envis­aged as an act of col­lect­ive res­ist­ance through laughter, dance, farce, the art of coun­ter­point, fantasy and light­ness. The piece unfolds a poly­semy of the smile, open­ing up spaces where the bizarre, the dis­pro­por­tion­ate, the unusu­al and the unex­pec­ted flour­ish. In oth­er words, a place where the clown­ish world emerges from us and with­in us, a car­ni­val of enthu­si­asm, a parade of smiles.