Being human

This year, the French May Arts Festival brought to Hong Kong two dance-based shows that though stylistically quite dissimilar seem connected on some level. Both Corps extrêmes (Extreme Bodies) and Souvenirs rely heavily on the machinelike precise coordination between cast members in order to - somewhat paradoxically - explore and investigate the human capacity for error and imperfection.

Co-presented by WestK Performing Arts at the Xiqu Centre, Corps extrêmes is a breathtaking demonstration of how humans can train their bodies to defy the force of gravity, while also laying bare what goes on in the minds of those who do. The show begins with footage showing Nathan Paulin highlining between two Alpine peaks, around 600 meters above the sea. In a voiceover, Paulin shares his psychological state while trying to cope with the elements - and standing within an inch of a possible fall from the heights. By the time highliner Luca Chiarva - dressed in a red T-shirt like Paulin by way of a tribute - begins ropewalking across the stage, the audience is rooting for him to succeed.

The piece's 10-member multicultural cast performs like atoms moving apart and regrouping in a series of chemical reactions. One moment, they are standing on each other's shoulders to form mobile human towers. In the next, everyone is tossed down onto the floor, rolling away and scattering soundlessly like falling leaves in autumn.

Choreographed by Algerian-born French artist Rachid Ouramdane, Corps extrêmes is less about the triumphs of athletes engaging in extreme sports and more about acknowledging the fears and vulnerabilities experienced in the process.

The piece also draws attention to the collective effort that makes individual achievements possible. One of the show's most poignant scenes sees Chiarva's ropewalk being replicated on the ground level by a performer walking across a shifting terrain made up of the outstretched palms of fellow performers. The aerial and terrestrial realms meet when Chiarva bends down to catch hold of the performer mirroring his movements as she is gently thrown in his direction.

The image could be a metaphor for the show, which celebrates both the human ambition to reach for the stars and the fact that often this is not possible to pull off without help from a supportive community.

Suitcase of memories

Souvenirs unfolds in a more intimate and predominantly domestic setup. The cutout transparent slides used to set the scenes and camera equipment used to film parts of the show for live projections easily fit into a suitcase, which the artistic team of Claire Théault and Anthony Figueiredo calls "a suitcase of memories" and sets out to unpack.

The boy-meets-girl, boy-loses-girl plot is as familiar as it can get. What makes Souvenirs a compelling watch is the amazing synchronicity between the two performers who use dance, voice acting, shadow play and live projections of filming themselves in action to tell the story.

In the shadow-play bits, Théault performs upstage. Figueiredo, who is downstage and much closer to the light source, uses slides with cutout silhouettes and his hands to cast gigantic shadows that appear to twirl, tickle, tease, subdue, press down on and overwhelm the much-smaller figure of Théault like a looming monster.

The piece explores the shifts in couple dynamics - how empathy leads to attraction, love, possessiveness and eventually trying to control the other. Through a clever manipulation of spectators' perspectives, the performing team creates illusions that while being playful and funny can be laden with dark overtones - Figueiredo's character using a control panel to make Théault's tiny woman trapped inside a TV set dance to his tune, for example. The scene in which he tries to force her to put on a smile and she in turn keeps collapsing like a malfunctioning marionette is particularly affecting.

Corps extrêmes and Souvenirs end on different notes. While the former is about acknowledging fear and vulnerability and finding the experience of plunging into the void strangely liberating, the latter - about a relationship faltering on its way to an inevitable end - is perhaps about embracing a void of a different kind.

basu@chinadailyhk.com