I'm always slightly wary when a choreographer begins a piece with a walk on in front of the curtain to explain to the audience what the work is about. One of the many pleasures of dance as an art form is its subjective quality where wordless narratives are created through compelling movement and interpreted through one’s own imagination. The risk of a choreographer ‘telling’ about the piece as opposed to ‘showing’ the audience through the performance itself is a matter of over promising and under delivering.
This was the case when Hervé Koubi took to the stage of the Amare Danstheater on Saturday to share (explain) the creative process of Les nuits barbares ou les premiers matin du monde. His talk about investigating his French ancestry and Algerian roots and the years of creative research traveling between two countries was well intended but was it necessary? Isn't that what the programme notes are for?
I was certainly part of the minority on Saturday night who listened to Koubi a bit critically. The audience warmly welcomed the choreographer's speech about learning of his Algerian roots and deepening his understanding of the ancient history of the barbarians of the Mediterranean basin. His poignant share of growing up Muslim and also having a Jewish father garnered some applause from the crowd. Positionality and politics are certainly not new concepts in contemporary dance. His talk, I felt, set Les nuits barbares... up for high expectations.
Did it deliver? Well, it certainly didn't disappoint. The most captivating part of the evening were the performers themselves: fourteen breathtaking male figures, more circus than dance, all with backgrounds in street dance, acrobatics and breakdance, mostly self-taught. Koubi’s greatest success is the assemblage of these men, all of whom know how to draw in a crowd not just with their beautifully executed acrobatics but with their commanding physical presence.
The appreciation of the male form seems to be at the forefront of Koubi’s work. The stage itself was nothing but a dark liminal space for the performers to inhabit and the sharp lighting accentuated their statuesque physiques. Bare chested with voluminous pants/skirts that slowly peeled away to reveal tight stretch pants, all fourteen bodies perfectly exemplified Da Vinci's Vitruvian Man.
The most captivating moment for me was the opening sequence. Les nuits barbares... began in darkness with specs of light twinkling from the performers’ fully covered head masks encrusted with reflective jewels. The dancers encircled each other centre stage, moving slowly in a unit in an intimate exchange of energy and power. Pieces of metal that resembled rabbit ears were slowly removed, becoming two blades that the dancers used in various battle-like formations.
From here, the work became a powerful piece of showmanship. Barefoot and barely clothed, the performers were put through their paces, showcasing a dizzying display of acrobatic abilities that would rival any act in a Cirque de Soleil show. Between unified moments of stillness and judo-like katas and other martial art formations like capoeira, each man tumbled, leaped and flipped with power and precision, both alone and into each other's arms, creating awe-inspiring events.
The agile stunts were accompanied to music that oscillated between Mozart, Fauré and traditional Algerian music, suggesting a dialogue or a breaking of borders between cultures and cultural ideologies. Between junctures of super human tumbling, Koubi gave the artists time to luxuriate in stillness that evoked various spiritual symbolism. The placement of a singular man in a headstand with feet slightly crossed reminded me of ‘The Hanged Man’ in the deck of tarot cards and there were numerous occasions when the men hoisted each other up in Christ-like poses. A series of continuous breakdancing head spins, the performers’ skirts in constant motion, was both mesmeric and mystical.
I commend the men for performing at such a high calibre, exemplifying the kind of teamwork, athleticism and trust that’s required for a show with real risk-taking and daring stunts. Performance works that bridge the worlds between street dance, acrobatics and contemporary dance certainly deserve to be showcased in prestigious festivals like the Holland Dance Festival. However, while I found the performers incredibly charismatic and jaw-dropping in their acrobatic abilities and physical stature, I was less convinced of Les nuits barbares...’ merits as a dance piece, where much of the movement seemed only to function as transitional links for the next acrobatic sequence.
