Following on from " Appel d'air " (1981), "Swim one" - a light-heartedly humorous piece that outdistanced "Simone" (1982) by a few consonants and a few fathoms - features swimsuit-clad dancers in a retroglam comic-book setting, accompanied by live music (bass and saxophone) evoking an aquatic atmosphere.It's hardly surprising to find Régine Chopinot grappling with the marine element in this early work, created for the Seine Maritime Summer Festival in Rouen in July 1982. After "Reflux" and "L'Origine des poissons" from her Compagnie du Grèbe days (1979), but many years before her immersive work in the South Pacific with Wetr (2011-2012), Chopinot's destiny seems linked to the sea. Born in Fort-de-l'eau, Algeria, she recounts how, as a child, her grandmother would take her on her lap to watch the sea and its reflections in the sun for hours on end. From these hours of observation, a secret bond was born, taking her to the head of the CCN in La Rochelle, to the port of Toulon opposite the Algeria of her childhood, or to New Caledonia, bathing in the middle of the South Pacific. Water is a structuring element for Régine Chopinot: she draws inspiration from its strength and perpetual dissatisfaction. "Water is everything we can't name or catch" - a bit like her own image, she admits - "it's about running as fast as you can, so as not to be satisfied with what you find (...) poking holes in your certainties."