Pierre Doussaint and Isabelle Dubouloz are two of the most prominent figures in the new wave of French dance. Both have undergone various formative experiences, but their work was significantly shaped during their time with Esquisse, the excellent company led by Joelle Bouvier and Regis Obadia. The Doussaint-Dubouloz duo belongs stylistically to the Esquisse dimension: strong energies, highly physical, a wave of warm emotion in the exaggerated movement of bodies, a passion for a concrete, dramatic dance style rejecting any abstraction.
The two works presented by Doussaint and Dubouloz in Rovereto are autonomous creations signed separately. "Angel Strip," Doussaint's solo piece, emerged from his recent immersion in Japanese culture. The duo composed of Dubouloz and performed alongside Nathalie Clouet is described as "a feminine adventure" by the author herself: a very sensual exploration of female instinct, inspired by surrealist painters in its genesis, reflecting their way of interpreting the feminine universe.
Michel Hallet Eghayan presents an excerpt from his latest creation, "L’ile aux ruisseaux," which premiered in Lyon (the city where the choreographer lives and works) in April of this year. Hallet Eghayan is often labeled as a "post-Cunninghamian." His dance is described as abstract, "cold" and geometric, rigorously developed within a logic where every movement of the body evolves from internal necessity. Marcelle Michel, a critic from Le Monde, has termed it "pure dance."
Lastly, "Instance," the intensely emotional duet performed and composed by Catherine Diverrès and Bernardo Montet. Both artists attended Béjart's Mudra school and worked with Blaska, Nourkil, Ambash, Bagouet, and Verret. In 1982, they received a scholarship from the Ministry of Culture to study Butoh in Japan with the great master and Butoh founder Kazuo Ohno. Out of that period of study and work emerged "Instance," created in Tokyo in '83, later presented in Paris the same year, and reprised this summer at the Avignon Festival. It is a duet rich in mystery, explicitly influenced by Kazuo Ohno.
