The Gathering

A powerful dance work for 10 dancers

The Gathering is a celebration of collective movement — a work propelled by driving, unifying rhythms and performed by a multigenerational ensemble of male and female dancers. The piece unfolds on a singular “forest-stage” — a space that evokes lush, radiant visions of nature alive with movement and light.

A visual poem, The Gathering is an ode to the vitality and interconnected ecology of life on Earth.

Within this living landscape and supported by an original musical composition of resonant voices and pulsating rhythms, the perpetual movement of ten dancers weaves a dense choreographic tapestry, bridging between the sensory and the rational, the poetic and the human. Over time, these motifs accumulate and transform, becoming rituals that dissolve into the memory of the body, as seasons leave their imprint in the
growth rings of trees.

Through repetition and shared physical practice, gestures merge into a singular, embodied folklore — a collective language that fosters kinetic empathy between performers and audience. This act of becoming imagines a convergence with nature, with time, and with one another — an ecology of movement rooted in reciprocity and renewal.

In her new creation, Joanne Leighton brings to life a vibrant, mysterious, or burning forest, inhabited by a dance of striking clarity and beauty.
 Delphine Baffour, La Terrasse (April 3, 2025)

A sweeping movement that draws you in—inviting you to join, to participate, to become part of this powerful, organic collective.
— Robin Kuchler Gotté, Vivant Mag (March 31, 2025)

Poetic and organic (...). It is these qualities that gives this ode to a primal state all its depth and visceral power.
— Thomas Hahn, Transfuge (June 2, 2025)

Photographs and videos
Distribution

Choreographer & direction : Joanne Leighton
Dancers : Anthony Barreri, Stéphanie Bayle, Lauren Bolze, Hippolyte Desneux, Marie Fonte, Flore Khoury, Elisabeth Merle, Maureen Nass, Sabine Rivière, Antoine Roux-Briffaud / Cassandre Guerdat
Artistic collaboratrice : Marie Fonte
Sound track & original music : Peter Crosbie
Photography & Video : Flavie Trichet-Lespagnol
Costumes : Maïté Chantrel
Lighting design & Scenography : Romain de Lagarde
Creation of the scenography : Pierre-Yves Loup-Forest, Gaston Arrouy
Technician : François Blet
Photos : Patrick Berger

Production

Production : WLDN
Coproduction : Le Grand R - Scène nationale La Roche-Sur-Yon ; LE ZEF - scène nationale de Marseille ; Théâtre du Beauvaisis - scène nationale ; Atelier de Paris / CDCN ; MC2 : Grenoble - Scène nationale ; Châteauvallon-Liberté, scène nationale ; Théâtre Cinéma de Choisy-le-Roi ; Centre chorégraphique national de Créteil et du Val-de-Marne I EMKA dans le cadre de l’Accueil Studio - Ministère de la Culture ; Charleroi Danse - Centre chorégraphique de Wallonie-Bruxelles ; Centre chorégraphique national de Grenoble.
Support : La Comédie de Clermont-Ferrand, scène nationale ; Montpellier Danse avec le soutien de la Fondation BNP Paribas ; L’Essieu du Batut ; micadanses-Paris ; La Ménagerie de Verre, Paris.
Thanks : Foyer Notre Dame des Sans-Abris de Lyon (contribution scénographie)
With support from : La Région Ile-de-France et le Département de l’Aveyron.

Press
La Terrasse
La Terrasse
L'oeil d'Olivier
L’oeil d’Olivier
Transfuge
Transfuge
Danser Canal Historique
Danser Canal Historique
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