Bare black stage. A girl stands. A fallen chair. The girl rolls on to her back.
A single overhead light allumes. Girl rises. Dressed in in plain white t-shirt and very blue jeans.
Silence.
She turns on the chair. A vicious attention. Kicks the chair melodically across the stage.
Intimacy and hatred in an inanimate object.
Strong projection of personality. Not a typical dancer’s body, but beautiful, flexible and powerful. Somehow very true.
Claire Croizé in Skéné
Unfortunately these first five minutes were the high point of the show.
The rest of the mercifully short piece (less than one hour) involved a lot of arm twisting to very loud Mozart.
Only the charisma and physical presence of Clara Croizé kept the audience in the theatre. At some point Etienne Guilloteau wandered out himself. He was wearing the same white t-shirt and plain blue jeans as Croizé. He gave himself mainly the same movements as Croizé to execute. This only highlighted the obvious – that he is not nearly the dancer she is.
Guilloteau’s pointy little beard and sloppy pony tail only added a focal point to our discontent. His head did not seem to be fully in his performance, at least beside the almost otherworldly concentration of Croizé.
Never did we get as lively an interaction between the human pair, as we saw between Croizé and the chair.
Croizé does get one more peculiar and transfixing solo. She wanders the stage in a circle throwing her arms forward violently and repeatedly to the chords of Symphony No. 25 in G-Minor . Eventually Guilloteau joins her, spoiling a promising moment.
Guilloteau’s choreography is simply not at the hauteur of his musical ambitions (Mozart chefs-d’oeuvres).
Nice dancer. Lousy show.
Clare Croizé and Etienne Guilloteau
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES
Twenty-five year old Croizé is a French born, Belgian-trained (P.A.R.T.S.) dancer who is a choreographer in her own right (Give me something that doesn’t die). She has performed for Carlotta Sagna (Public Relation) among others.
Four years Croizé’s senior, Guilloteau is also French and a P.A.R.T.S. alumnus who has performed for for Anna Teresa De Keersmaeker (Kassandra), Charlotte Vanden Eynde (Beginning Endings) and Mar Vanrunxt (Deutsche Angst). Skéné appears to be his first professional work as a choreographer. Let’s hope for the best.
Photos © Raymond Mallentjer