That side
A new aphorism
That side deals with ambivalent emotions: the desire to be here and to see the world, being elsewhere and feeling homesick... Without making of the South African dancer Fana Tshabalala’s first big voyage the actual subject, this solo creates an imaginary echo of his arrival into the company. The work in parallel on the same choreography with Caroline Blanc compels one to consider the double interpretation to come as a creative motor while avoiding the pitfalls of being anecdotal.
The challenge was to create a dance that each performer could fully embrace, despite their profound differences in culture and training. Gestures and situations were chosen to give Fana the opportunity to show off his sensuality and his dynamism, and Caroline her incisive magnetism. The interior restlessness characteristic of an important departure into the unknown was the starting point; the agitation that drives contradictory emotions like temptation-repulsion whose translation into movement directs the gaze towards inquietude.
From the desire for being elsewhere to the spectrum of the unknown, from a dream experienced as a nightmare, or a binary reality where everything is in constant opposition. Rays of harsh light blind the dancers and divide the scenic space only to finally compress into a single beam of light towards which, or against which, the dance develops.
Kelemenis exposes his obsessions: choreographic writing first, that of gestures in simultaneous exploration of varied qualities, outbursts, presences and body content; the dialogue with contemporary music, especially electroacoustic; the solo understood as an unparalleled discovery of the dancer’s inner self.
In this respect, That Side continues the momentum that forged the Geometric Aphorisms in 2005 and supports the hypothesis that the same solo is a portrait twice as unique if performed by two dancers fully committed to retracing, reviving and reinventing… to being themselves in the text. Fana Tshabalala and Caroline Blanc are accompanied by the sounds of Christian Zanési. That Side, like Aléa, Viiiiite, Disgrâce and TATTOO will also be handed over to the Ballet National de Marseille in 2007, the 5th work of the ElectroacouCycle undertaken by the choreographer in a dialogue with the composer.