Soufflette

Following Romances inciertos, un autre Orlando with Nino Laisné, François Chaignaud has created two pieces based
on vocal repertoires of the Middle Ages, one of which is Soufflette with Carte Blanche,
the Norwegian national company of contemporary dance. At the start there are just still lives, inanimate paintings of flesh exhibited against a pitch-black background. Emanating from it is the sound of ethereal voices, murmurs without origin of songs or prayers. A primitive tribe emerges from this initial singing, striking the floor with their feet in a rhythmic ritual, making Bob Marley sing in the manner of sacred 12th and 13th-century polyphonies. From processions in rounds to languorous slow numbers, from free dances to wild sarabands, the orchestra-chorus- corps de ballet remove their heavy rags to
be cloaked in the semi-naked innocence of hybrid beings, in which genders – male and female, like the animal, vegetable and mineral kingdoms – merge. A love song to desire, to the beauty of bodies, beings and nature, with the slowness, fluidity and mastery
of a gesture from the far east, Soufflette choreographs bouquets of flesh in full bloom – just before the end.