“Inter urinas et faeces nascimur” explained the philosopher Porphyry, cited by Sigmund Freud in his “second infantile sexual theory” to illustrate the cloacal origin of the body. The body is nothing. Disciplined, physically trained, subjected to the intensity of effort, but also approached, seduced, touched, in close symbiosis with another’s, it radiates power and beauty. It is understandable that the enigma of the body fascinates Dutch choreographer of Hungarian origin, Krisztina de Châtel, known for having previously worked with the garbage collectors of the Netherlands. She knows how to persuade it without forcing it. She can move it without weakening it. To ultimately make it triumph. A strong symbolic message, a real thread subtly woven from the first scene of her production at the Monaco Dance Forum: she associated, in a world premiere, the Monaco Fire Brigade, Dansgroep Amsterdam, and the Ballets de Monte Carlo.
Under a dim light, scattered limbs and then whole bodies painfully emerge from trash bins placed in the heart of the stage. Slowly, the dancers untangle themselves, seeming to regain a taste for life. After a grand entry, with blaring sirens, the firefighters freeze, immobile, as intangible as their motto, pillars around which these frail and faltering figures move. Death is but a memory. The life drive asserts itself. A beautiful introduction, in the form of a tribute, to those whose job is to save others’. At the risk of their own. Although, at first, the professional dancers rely, both literally and figuratively, on the sculpted bodies, supporting their movements with the passive masculinity of the firefighters, the latter gradually allow themselves to be won over, seduced. Some with a broad, satisfied smile, others under control. All eventually react to the playful provocations, to the tender invitations of their partners. Each according to their temperament, duly respected by the artistic director: some cast a glance, others sketch a gesture, the more daring initiate a pas de deux. One can easily sense their anxiety: their cautious movements, filled with modest restraint yet devoid of awkwardness, betray their fear of mistreating graceful bodies, like a fear of breaking precious trinkets. Perceptible tensions that the choreographer exploits and conveys with a keen sense of aesthetics.
Apotheosis: the various intervention vehicles and the dancers begin a sort of uncertain back-and-forth, a sketch of a power struggle doubled with a passionate duet: humanity in confrontation with machinery. Magnificent dynamics that, despite the massive presence of mechanical materiality, flirt with dramaturgical epic. A Hugo-esque battle worthy of “Ninety-Three” during which the “ant triumphs over the mastodon”. The dance of the helmets further shows the creativity, the originality of the choreographer. She identifies the “choreographic moment” par excellence, where it is least expected, and knows how to highlight it: four firefighters, pairing up, roll up the fire hoses in an impressively synchronized physicality that no marked ground arrows could ever match. Without ever, fortunately, falling into the “Chippendale-ization” of available musculature, Krisztina de Châtel offers, to conclude, a series of purely gymnastic figures, combining strength, agility, and humor. Maneuvers with the large ladder sign off, unsurprisingly, the grand finale of this bodily fireworks.
Performers:
Andreas Kuck, Swantje Schäuble (Dansgroep Amsterdam), Sivan Blitzova, Ediz Erguc, Vanessa Henriques, Beatriz Uhalte (Ballets de Monte Carlo), Manuel Amonos, Maxime Boesch, Eric Briano, Gildas Brunel, Jean-Philippe Dol, Fabrice Matje, Fred Unternaehr (Monaco Fire Brigade).
