Là… Pas Là !

Photo credit : Agnès Desfosses

LÀ… PAS LÀ !

Sound and visual poetry – danse and visual arts

from 18 months to 4 years old

Direction: Laurent Dupont

Interpretation: Émilie Lambert et Joseph Bourillon

Scenography: Patricia Lacoulonche

Costumes: Gaëtan Leudière

Lighting creation: Bernard Beau

Created in November 2020

Production: ACTA, conventioned by : Conseil départemental du Val-d’Oise, Villiers-le-Bel City. ACTA is subsidised by the DRAC Île-de-France through a territory convention, and by the Île-de-France Regional Council through an artistic permanence convention.

Coproductions: Villiers-le-Bel City (95) | La Passerelle (Rixheim – 68)


This is a story to be shared between the elders and the younger ones. From the beginning to the end, between light and darkness, as in a game of hide-and-seek, “Là…Pas Là! (“There…Not There!”)

A game of presence and absence, in this delicate “in-between” where, to make up for an absence, the adult and the child invent games through which they discover the need to separate themselves in order to better find each other: “I know you are there … even if I don’t see you…”

And the pleasure of creating a moment rich in invention and creativity where one can “play with the other” while developing one’s own imagination and thought. A surprising moment where stories, myths, beliefs, ideals and values are whispered and trace the first chapters of the history of the toddler.

This creative project, born from a simple experience that every adult (father, mother or early childhood professional) can have, revolves around the rituals linked to separation.

“A young girl fell in love with a man. He had to leave. While he was sleeping, before he left, she used a lantern to trace the outline of his shadow on a wall. Later, her father, struck by the extreme resemblance, modelled the image with earth and created a statue of it.”

Myth written by Pline the Elder

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