descendansce 1.3 / Dance in Public Time and Space

Excerpt of “descendansce” autobio-choreographic essay on the historicity of the body onstage.

In “descendansce 1.3/ Dance in Public Time and Space”, I’m trying to study how a work of art passes from the stage to the audience, hence the public space. The recorded text one can hear during the piece was written by myself and read by Mikhaïl Baryshnikov: a series of six exercises, humoristically serious, asking the performer and the public to react to each other. I made choreographic and theatrical variations from James’ solo in Bournonville’s “La Sylphide”. All the choices (Baryshnikov, ballet dances) are linked to history (my own and in general) and the fact that in order to get the audience quickly expressing itself, it was easier to use recognizable and well-known material.
Foofwa d’Imobilité