An innovative new dance/theater company out of France, The Seven Boards of Skill, directed and choreographed by Aurelien Bory, recently performed at the Les French Arts Festival in Hong Kong. This is an arts festival that began at the end of April and will continue through June 13, 2009. Many are traveling throughout the month and staying in the best hotels Hong Kong offers. Bory is now known as the most innovative new creators and artists out of France. He uses concepts of mathematics, space being governed by the laws of math and geometry, and of course gravity. Space is ruled by these laws and Bory is driven to investigate these concepts through theater and dance. This concept was inspired by a trip Bory had taken to Northern China. In the city of Dalian he was exposed to an ancient game. In Dalian, he also found his performers and created the company on that trip.
He discovered a game, Tangram. This is an ancient game involving puzzle pieces, that are made of of seven pieces of geometric shapes. He had found the means to express the abstract ideas he had been wanting to express. What resulted is a delicate and poetic piece that is visually amazing and breath taking. The stage is set with large blocks, geometric shapes, and the performers push them gracefully around the stage, with other performers dancing around them. While this sounds abstract, Bory states that he does employ the use of narrative structures, and that these are obvious enough for the audience, while using their own imagination to make connections. Much of the piece is left open for interpretation for same reason, to allow the creativity of the audience to run. In this way, he hopes to not only put on one show on stage, but many shows as there are people in the audience. This is a stunning concept that draws from modern dance, acrobatics, circus techniques and visual art.
Related posts: