Entrelacs

recorded at the CND 3 March 2011

« At the three strikes of midnight, the cats are all grey.
In the far distant woods we can hear the kill.
Backs fleeing through the cathedral forests.
Under the red moon, the spectres roam.
The white Ophelia rises from the long black river.
This evening, keep a watch on your shadows, the other side is out to play. »

For Lionel Hoche, theatre remains this place where, in the wake of Oresteia and Hamlet, the undead are summoned to trouble and to guide the living. But, as a child of modern-times, it’s with mixed memories of cinema and fantasy literature that Lionel Hoche offers his theatre illusions of new chimera. These ghostly figures, he knows they have always been and will always be the undead of older, immemorial figures and that, in every period, they are resurrected to talk to us again and again about eternity, where, apparently, time is extremely long. This is why, during this highly unique vampires’ ball, we will meet just as many familiar spectres as new creatures: an Ophelia saved from the water, twins reminiscent of the “Shining”, a Nosferatu fleeing his shadow, succubae laughing over sleeping souls, like in a Füssli nightmare sung by a gothic rock band…

These composite figures, which are actually only the fragmented facets of a same body, move through a kaleidoscopic suite of décors that blend flashbacks and déjà-vu. Under the whims of dreams, there will always be the underground rationale of a return journey…

“Entrelacs” attempts a blend, an ever-so singular alchemy: move the codes and the ingredients of the fantasy genre and set them in the choreographic field.

On stage, five dancers multiply avatars and shadows, in a choreographic writing that harmonizes psychosis and manipulation, doubles and opposites. In a black and white scenographic world, where every single dimension is upturned, be it the top or the bottom, the before or the after, Thierry Fournier’s interactive video system orchestrates the interplay of spectral apparitions. Split, haunted by its own luminous trace, the dance sweeps along the body in a shimmer, instilling the visible and the invisible, reality and illusion. With its soundtrack that offers tenebrae lessons (Michaël Levinas and Arvo Pärt’s organ scores played live, compositions by the group Bauhaus…), the dancers revisit the figures of a never-never, permit the citation, the wink of an eye and humour, creating, as such, new forms of apparitions, embodying new undead…

As was already the case in a great many of Lionel Hoche’s past works, “Entrelacs” is more than ever before a statement of a theatre of illusion, a dance of images, a playful rapport with symbols and the invention of poetic rituals. A way to add a little light to the otherwise invisible.

Updating: September 2011