The trailblazing duo, whose offering oozed poised lyricism and a pulsating energy to match, delivered a sweeping experience that toyed with notions of form, gravity, and scale. It was a poignant piece of theatre, equally capable of enveloping both freedom and structure.
VENICE, ITALY — When can a piece of theatre confuse the senses? When a series of dancers crosses the stage with long, enveloping lines, and strands of light beam through small fractions of their bodies, paired with a set design painstakingly created to offer a full sensory experience. Some may have asked: Is that real water, or is it a projection? It’s no easy feat to tell at first glance.
Photograph: Andrea Avezzù
Photograph: Andrea Avezzù
We see a pianist toying with scales and projecting his voice, fully absorbed and seemingly oblivious to the dancers on stage. The interplay between dance and acrobatics—and how they complement one another—is a crucial through-line: it blends timelessness with innovation, heightens the sense of gravity throughout the performance, and layers movements drawn from a wealth of dance styles. Very theatrical, yet intensely intimate at the same time.
As an exercise in scale and physicality, researching airy romance becomes the lingua franca at the heart of Bourgeois and Watson’s practice. One piece features dancers spinning up and down a child’s slide, echoing the shapes and mimicry of distorting objects across the stage floor—surprisingly beautiful.
Photograph: Andrea Avezzù
“There are spaces from which we fall or to which we cling, spaces that simultaneously let us go and carry us away,” read the notes. “The aerial beauty of the movements and the play of light are accompanied by the fragility and nuance of Canadian folk music: to transcend, and perhaps better understand, our daily lives,” they continued.
Photograph: Andrea Avezzù
Perhaps that’s why the performance drew our attention to the smallest of movements. Watson’s tracks are remarkable; the dancing and characterisation of the performers are utterly precise yet completely unforced, as if their bodies are simply vessels for these physical forces.
They barely leave a mark on the space—and yet, they’re a compelling presence. It may sound unreasonable, but that’s how it felt. And it’s exactly why so much happens in performance art within the realm of unexpected ambiences and creations alike.
by Chidozie Obasi