This strange, exuberant, and decadent choreography, perfectly danced by Agnès Lascombes and Julien Lestel shows –on a bare low-angle-lighted stage- the dancers at work trying to perform a sort of tango, hesitating between undecided extensions, standing with their weight on their hip, classical elevations punctuated with losses of balance and falls. The surprise comes with brutal breaks, during this “rehearsal” following an unexpected change in costumes: the she-dancer having quit the stage suddenly comes back in a black and yellow short pleated skirt. The he-dancer does the same and adopting Atala’s style or the good savage’s, he imitates her pirouettes fouetté, dancing around her with a feminine grace, which causes great mirth. The lights goes down. The dancers might fancy themselves in the Garden of Eden.
Philippe Oualid - Danse 03/07