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Edinburgh Fringe 2021

Bones and Wires

Sébastien Provencher and Mathieu Leroux

Genre: Contemporary, Dance

Venue: Assembly Showcatcher Online

Festival:


Low Down

“The meeting of two worlds, of two solos within a single spacetime. One focuses on memory and family, the other on over technologisation and the fixation on the future. On stage, the two performers meet, clash, steal from and copy one another. Words and images from other artists and thinkers infiltrate the process and stimulate the creation of themes that emerge from cohabitation. With theory as a starting point, how does one come back to the intimate so as to ultimately deconstruct the self? This autobiographical investigation feeds on an obsession with energy.”

Review

Two people, each on a different journey are contrasting beings. One is about nature and natural life and the other is about the rat race and being embedded in technology. Choreographed and performed by Canada’s Sébastien Provencher and Mathieu Leroux, they explore, discover and realize different phases of their lives, separate and together.

Divided literally by a fascinating tall web of tangled wired in the centre stage, the lighting also evokes the division through contrasts, with strong lighting design of rich purple and green on either side of the stage by Hugo Dalphond.

At first one explores the space with expansive naturalistic movement lifting bones from an animal skull, while the other is feverishly jogging. The movement and story develops as the exploration progresses from the former into a very interesting shivering motif and fluid gestures, while the latter is more pained and angular in self-exploratory movement, seemingly wanting to break out from the enmeshment of wires and life built around technology.

Eventually they match each other in energy and movement dynamics, which is interesting and offers an unpredictable pathway in the second part of the piece. Softly spoken words from the performers also appear on the screen about how our online life is what our lives have become. Each reacts differently and from this experience they reevaluate. A dramatic moment is when the coloured lights go out and a new possibility of normal life is presented.

Moody electronic music and abstract soundscape by Steve Lalonde plays throughout, with the addition of a drum beat that increases the tension when these beings are pressed to a wall, as they slowly slide towards each other and cross over. There is a release of tension in the second half and tentative, tender and discrete interactions are beautifully suggested.

This is a handsomely created contemporary dance film that explores abstracted ideas about how technology is taking over our busy lives, through contemporary dance. Watching the slow unfolding of each person’s subtle story provides the viewer time to reflect, too.

Published