Hear ye, hear ye! You will find in this film everything you’ve loved in Decouflé’s Big Top: the windmill man with his weathervane arms, the cantankerous couple with their flying arguments, the mysterious flea handler. Rediscover Christophe Salengro, the friendly giant, the king of gymnastic tango. Enjoy again the electric solo of the fairy Michèle Prélonge and the mischievous contortionists.

Filmed as close to the bodies as possible, Decouflé’s show verges on the mysterious and becomes almost abstract. Beauty of the frames that only reveal later what they contain. Touches of impressionist images selecting a few acts but not omitting the strange final crawling that ends this tonic and uplifting show on a static and melancholic note. Triton, created at the Festival d'Avignon in 1990, is the work that introduced Philippe Decouflé to the general public. Many choreographic elements in this show were used again and developed by some of the company’s interpreters for the opening ceremony of the Albertville Winter Olympics.

Dancer, choreographer, director and art director

As a child, I dreamt of becoming a comic book 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

Vincent Hachet born August 23, 1962 in Toul, is a French director and composer of music.

 The audio description was produced by Valérie Castan for the Cie  Acajou – Danser sans (se) voir (acajou.org)