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Powerful political dance from Brooklyn’s FlexN and the spectacle of the Helicopter String Quartet are part of British artistic director’s programme
Paris’s Théâtre du Châtelet reopened last autumn after a two-year restoration, before being forced to close again because of the Covid-19 pandemic. But undeterred, this week the theatre serves up a digital festival, Après, Demain, featuring a couple of new creations, existing dance and music performances, short films and talks (in French, bien sûr) and previews of major commissions to come.
The opening weekend’s offerings asked for differing amounts of commitment: Ten minutes for Brooklyn street dancers FlexN, six hours for Stockhausen’s epic opera Mittwoch aus Licht. It’s definitely worth putting aside that 10 minutes (recordings remain online until the end of the festival). Reggie Gray’s flexing crew, FlexN, and their powerfully political dance rooted in young black America could not be more pertinent. Gray’s Loud Silence, filmed on the bridges and streets of New York, intersperses footage of Black Lives Matters protests with forthright, frustrated, imploring solos from his dancers, who move with rangy grace, muscular impact, and the crooked contortions of the style known as bone-breaking. A shorter second film, Black, by Cal Hunt, is set to the song of the same name by British rapper Dave. Its movement is like a stream of consciousness that flows with a soft pop, deftly picking out lyrics with mime – lyrics that are powerful enough that Hunt knows his dance doesn’t have to shout. Continue reading...