Monteverdi's music, a psychiatrist's films and a colourful group of dancers combine to give a contemporary take on religion, choreographer Alain Platel tells Michael Seaver

Don't believe the name. Les Ballets C de la B - or Les Ballets Contemporains de la Belgique to give its full title - isn't a ballet company. In fact it isn't even a company.

"Some people felt the name of Les Ballets C de la B to be really provocative," choreographer Alain Platel told Libération in 1997. "All the more because my name has a French resonance to it. It took me years to convince people that it was no more than a joke. The group was a mix of many different nationalities."

Although perceived as a figurehead, Platel is only one of a number of choreographers with the group, who regard themselves as a collective rather than a company. And, of course, it follows that a group that democratises artistic decision-making wish to create works that underpin that ideology.

But there's no screaming rhetoric. Even in conversation Platel is soft-spoken and smiles easily. It's these qualities that enable him to harness hugely disparate performers into a coherent statement. These performers can be as many as 81 (in 9X9) and might even include 14 dogs (like in Wolf). Vsprs, which will be performed at the Abbey Theatre as part of this year's International Dance Festival Ireland, has a typically disparate line-up of classical and contemporary dancers, street-circus performers along with jazz, gypsy and baroque musicians.

There were three starting points for Platel: Monteverdi's music, the films of Belgian psychiatrist Arthur van Gehuchten, and the performers. "I've been making pieces based around certain composers and I was drawn to Monteverdi's Vespers, which is a very religious work. But I was interested in hearing it performed by different kinds of musicians, not only baroque instruments. Saxophonist Fabrizio Cassol worked with me on finding these links with some gypsy musicians, his jazz trio AKA Moon and the baroque Ensemble Oltremontano."

Van Gehuchten's films were a more obvious source. Professor of Anatomy and Neurology at the Catholic University at Louvain, he was a somewhat avant-garde teacher and when he attended the first cinematographic screenings by the Lumière brothers in 1895, saw an essential tool to demonstrate clinical signs and neurological diseases.

Although early medical cinematography was brought into disrepute when films by the French surgeon Doyen were copied and shown at fairgrounds, van Gehuchten's films, which he began filming in 1905, remained solely for teaching and are the oldest surviving Belgian films. Only two hours long, they show patients with various forms of hysteria.

"I found these films fascinating," says Platel. "The movements show extreme forms of hysteria. What is most interesting is how they are displayed. These days people would be medicated but in the early 20th century they displayed their symptoms in a purely physical way."

Quickly he began to make connections between religion and hysteria ("it seemed obvious") before introducing the third element: performers.

Vsprs has an eclectic cast. It includes a Scottish street circus performer, ex-dancers with Anna Teresa de Keersmaeker, Wim Venderkeybus and Australian Dance Theatre, and performers from Vietnam and Korea as well as a couple of Ballet C de la B veterans. It's not just the various performance experiences that excite Platel, but the cultural differences as well.

"We talked a lot about hysteria but we also talked a lot about finding a mode of expressing ecstasy, because we felt that was the essence of Monteverdi's Vespers. I focused on religious ecstasy and I was curious to see if it was possible for these people to find a form of expressing it."

By "these people" Platel means a generation younger. Raised in a strong Catholic tradition in Belgium, he realises how these days we are not as confronted by religion as he was then. "I wondered if they would even be interested in the subject," he says.

They were, and together they watched van Gehuchten's films and others by Jean Rouch on West African trance rituals. He also invited a psychiatrist who specialised in hypnotism to spend a day with the performers. Unlike previous works, which evolved from less specific ideas, Vsprs was gently but firmly bound by an explicit goal. The musicians also began to contribute at a very early stage of the rehearsal process and, after initially bringing the musicians together and discussing ideas, Fabrizio Cassol became a regular presence in the rehearsal room.

Although Cassol proposed a lot of material early in the process, the score was only finished on the day of the premiere and continues to change. Platel envisioned them as a group that come together to perform the vespers, but because of the rattlebag of instruments they slide into jazz or gypsy tunes, and forget about Monteverdi.

"Once the performance starts, the dancers' actions interrupt the performance and also change the music," he says. As well as extreme physical movements they shout snippets of text, from a list of superheroes to a child's poem about poo. Although some words are inaudible in the chaos, there are some texts that are crucial (and will be translated into English for the Dublin performances).

"Often you will see what you need to hear. The movement will show the words. And knowing the words of Monteverdi's Vespers will probably add a little extra to understanding the piece. But the child's poem is important as is the prayer of St Francis of Assisi, which I think is one of the most beautiful prayers and nowadays essential to hear and understand. If only we could realise even 10 per cent of this prayer, every day."

As a teenager in the 1970s, Platel was aware of the strong sense of ecumenicism in the Catholic church, where links, rather than differences were celebrated. As a student in a Catholic college he could see young priests who promoted a combination of Christianity and socialism, linking politics and religion in supporting the most needy.

"This was very inspirational for me, particularly as I could see the philosophy being realised in parts of South America. But then came John Paul II and now Benedict XVI and all that is gone."

So does he still feel drawn to Catholicism? "I think I'm religious, but it is something that is much more ephemeral or poetic or linked to nature."

In Vsprs, as in all his other works, he seeks to celebrate community. Right at the end there is a moment when all of the performers start to shake different body parts in unison.

Christina Zavalloni's clear voice sings the Magnificat from Monteverdi's Vespers and for the first time warm lights shine through the set. Slowly the dancers begin to help each other offstage. After witnessing extreme movements devoid of any meaningful interaction it is a poignant final image, and one that Platel is keen to leave with us.

"When we arrived at that moment of unison shivering we knew it was crucial. But what was really crucial was the resolution. We didn't want to find a clear answer, because in a way that's impossible and anyway it would be preaching. What became essential was to find some form of consolation. It is the only thing we could come up with that was shared collectively. We were sure we wanted this kind of feeling at the end. Vsprs has been described as a dark piece, but I don't think it is a desperate piece. At the end of the day people are here to comfort each other."

So he doesn't see individual ecstasy as the essence of religious feeling or thinking, rather community.

"I believe that it is possible to gather people together and live an experience together. This is something I have tried to do in all the performances I've made. To gather people around an idea and live it as collectively as possible. It doesn't mean we become a family or sect and we that cannot leave each other. Simply that we share something very essential. Many people are searching for interaction with other people rather than experiencing their individuality. Finding a community or a group of people with whom they can share something is very strong, but happens rarely."

Les Ballets Contemporains de la Belgique perform Vsprs at the Abbey, Dublin Apr 21 and 22, for this year's International Dance Festival (Apr 21-May 7). See www.dancefestivalireland.ie

'The primary aim of the festival must be to bring contemporary dance to the forefront of Irish contemporary imagination," writes director Catherine Nunes (left), introducing this year's International Dance Festival Ireland. In the past, mixing brand-name performers such as Mark Morris and Merce Cunningham with those from the fringes such as Jerome Bel and Josef Nadj has successfully focused attention on the art form, albeit for three weeks every two years.

The absence of any popular household names from this year's line-up shows programming confidence. Choreographers such as Shen Wei and Charles Linehan can hardly be dubbed "emerging" but are increasingly receiving critical acclamation, while more established names such as John Jasperse and Nigel Charnock seem to be paring down their choreography to a more intimate level.

Catching those on the way up and others who are stepping out of the spotlight for a while makes canny programming sense with limited resources. This year there are also the peripheral activities of film, photographs and critical events, including a visit by US critic Deborah Jowitt. From now on the festival will be annual, further sating the hunger of Irish audiences for the best of international contemporary dance.