In a field of wild grass, under a greyish sky, Philippe Decouflé and Pascale Houbin, accompanied by the accordion, sign (use sign language) in their fashion C'était bien, Bourvil’s song. Superimposed on this sign language is a whole series of whacky actions, coming somewhere between a comic strip and a fantasy puzzle.

Various vegetables fall from the sky, while other falling objects resembling hieroglyphs are supposed to illustrate Bourvil’s words. A subtle work of speeded up images on editing means the length of the song matches that of the choreography… In all, four minutes of sheer joy.

Source : Fabienne Anvers

More information : cie-dca.com

Dancer, choreographer, director and art director

«As a child, I dreamt of becoming a comic strip artist. Drawing is  usually the start of my creative process. I just throw out ideas and  sketch out pictures that pass through my head. My culture is comics,  musicals, nightclub dancing, and also Oskar Schlemmer, the Bauhaus  choreographer. Discovering photos of characters from his Triadisches  Ballett was a revelation for me. I had always wanted to work with simple  geometric shapes like cubes and triangles. I liked seeing how these  lines and volumes behaved with each other. Alwin Nikolaïs taught me the  importance of light and costume, and the confidence you need to mix  everything together. Technically, it was Merce Cunningham who taught me  the most about dance. I was taking video courses he was giving in New  York. It was fascinating. That’s where I learned how to solve problems  of distance and geometry, and the basic principles of optics and  movement. Tex Avery inspired me a lot in thinking up gestures that are  almost impossible to do. I’ve always kept something of that desire to  create something strange, extreme or crazy in my movements. I’m looking  for a dance style that’s off-balance, always on the verge of toppling  over. With influences like the Marx Brothers, for example, and in  particular Groucho Marx, I’ve developed a taste for naughty risk-taking,  and comic repetition of mistakes.»

Source : Philippe Découflé

More information : cie-dca.com