While witnessing Danses vagabondes, a performance by Louise Lecavalier of Montreal at the 19th FTA, it’s impossible not to think about Beckett, both in his characters and in his television pieces, and not because Lecavalier’s movement was similar, but because I sense it’s something Beckett would have wanted to achieve. Also, there are several elements that evoke his universe, such as the fascination with the homeless, and the margins of society.

A square red screen lit in the deep, a square stage delimited only by lighting containing the performer who is wearing a long coat with a hood. She stands in front of the screen, in the contrast she seems immersed in it. She begins moving; I perceive her movements originates from her hands; it is incessant and schizophrenic.

I feel the photographs I get access to, don’t do justice to Lecavalier’s work. They seems like images from a regular dance piece, it shows a trained dancer in the middle of a choreography when what happened on stage was a disarticulation of dance itself, close to Butoh but more radical; a deliberately arrhythmic and cacophonous movement that generated a profound feeling of discomfort in the viewer. I felt my body in constant tension, and I noticed it especially during in the moments where I was catching my breath with some sequences she entered into harmony with the music and used movements with which I am more familiar to.

Danses vagabondes confronted my own configuration of the possibilities of the body motion. It’s not a discomfort due to some contortion, risk, or flagellate on the body; it’s a deeper social issue: discomfort to madness, illness, the other, the different, a rejection of something it shouldn´t be. This is absolutely Beckettian, not as a reinterpretation but as an ongoing dialogue. At the same time, as a show, it’s technically overwhelming, both in terms of the music and the dialogue created with the video, as well as the different spaces generated by the lighting. It’s hypnotic; the music doesn’t add to the discomfort, but rather provides nuance and composes a narrative. At times, Lecavalier accompanies that narrative and at other times, confronts it. It’s definitely a piece that break through the public.

UNE PRODUCTION DE / PRODUCED BY FOU GLORIEUX CHORÉGRAPHIE ET INTERPRÉTATION / CHOREOGRAPHED AND PERFORMED BY LOUISE LECAVALIER ASSISTANCE À LA CHORÉGRAPHIE ET RÉPÉTITRICE / ASSISTANT CHOREOGRAPHER AND REHEARSAL DIRECTOR FRANCE BRUYÈRE LUMIÈRES ET VIDÉO / LIGTHING AND VIDEO DESIGN JEAN-FRANÇOIS PICHÉ MUSIQUE / MUSIC ANTOINE BERTHIAUME + NICK CAVE + DAWN OF MIDI + NILS FRAHM + KIASMOS + THE BLACK DOG + TRENTEMOLLER COSTUMES YSO + ELIZABETH DURAN PHOTO ANDRÉ CORNELLIER SUR LA PHOTO / FEATURING LOUISE LECAVALIER COPRODUCTION FESTIVAL TRANSAMÉRIQUES + TANZHAUS NRW DÜSSELDORF + HELLERAU (DRESDE) + CENTRE NATIONAL DES ARTS (OTTAWA) PRÉSENTATION / PRESENTED BY LA PRESSE EN COLLABORATION AVEC / IN ASSOCIATION WITH USINE C