A ballet with dramaturgy directly inspired by a Gothic fresco?
This is the challenge of choreographer Aurélien Bory for his latest piece,
Invisibili
.
The only decorative element of this show - and the true common thread of the narration - a stage curtain reproducing the famous Palermita mural on the theme of the
Triumph of Death
.
Made by an unknown person in the 1440s for the hospital of Palazzo Sclafani, it is kept in the gallery of Palazzo Abatellis in Palermo.
Bory had a photo of it taken to print it on fabric;
the entire show will consist of a game between the dancers and the characters in this painting.
Sometimes artists imitate them to the point of blending into the image, sometimes they spring from it.
The process is extremely ingenious and surprising.
If death, in painting, strikes the powerful as well as the poor, Bory wants to make this macabre dance a hymn to life and hope.
He evokes the tragedy of migrants who died in the Mediterranean or the fight of women affected by breast cancer.
Music reinforces this optimism: Nigerian dancer and singer Chris Obehi, himself a survivor after joining Palermo at 17, performs the magnificent
Hallelujah
by Leonard Cohen.
A saxophonist appears on stage and accompanies pieces by Arvo Pärt or Bach, all in a form of praise of slowness.
This mixture of plastic art, dance and music is a success.
The theme of death may confuse some, but with these sublime images, Bory transports us to another world: that of intimacy and contemplation.
La Rochelle on 30 and 31, Maison de la danse de Lyon, from February 6 to 10.