Work 2021
30 minutes
20 amateur dancers

Mandala in Sanskrit means “universe”, “assembly of living beings”, and can also be literally translated as “extracting the essence”. It refers both to the world that the soul can experience once liberation has been attained, but also, and above all, to the path that every being has to cross to reach it. A mandala is symbolically represented by superimpositions of geometric forms with perfect symmetry, whose harmony classifies it as “sacred geometry”. Dressed in long black capes as false protections cutting them off from their own bodies, the dancers embody this progressive evolution from a mechanical state empty of humanity to a higher and higher state of consciousness.

With this project I could fulfill my wish to develop a choreographic composition exclusively focused on the taking of space through a choreography gathering a number of people. My aim was also to create an original choreographic work with an educational purpose. Indeed, the composition is essentially centred on group effects through a physicality of everyday gesture, the mouvements are in themselves adapted to amateur dancers which allows them to discover my way of composing dance, my conception of movement and my different working methods, while making them experiencing “from the inside” the paths that a choreographic work goes through from its beginnings in a studio to the performance on stage. This project was also an opportunity for me to develop demanding writing tools centred on the spatialization of bodies in continuity with all my research until now.

Jann Gallois

NEW ! A more extensive version of this project, nammed MANDALA 2.0 and intended for pre-professional dancers is now available. For more informations, please contact Manon Martin :

Choreography, direction and costumes Jann Gallois
Choreographer assistant Geoffroy Durochat & Annelise Pizot
Sound design Charles Amblard
Light design Cyril Mulon

Production Cie BurnOut
Coproduction Paul Eluard Theater (TPE) of Bezons
Support Val-d’Oise Department

Jann Gallois | Cie Burnout is supported by the French Ministry of Culture (DRAC), the Ile-de-France Region and the BNP PARIBAS Fondation.

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> Download the technical rider