OSCYL

Fourteen figures make up a shifting landscape. They come to life, revealing two radically distinct yet interconnected groups. The first is human and, as always with Héla Fattoumi and Éric Lamoureux, diverse: the collective of dancers forms a bloc of humanity. At their side, the Oscyls wait, motionless for a few seconds or several hundred years; only an external energy can animate them. If humans are generous and offer them their breath, then they tip over, stride, and whirl. Are they abstract puppets, giant tumbling figures, organic forms freely inspired by a sculpture by Hans Arp? Yet they have neither foundation nor pedestal. Their anchorage is also their mobility.

The dancers seek contact. They strive to invent a language through touch. Every signal, every impulse, every approach elicits a reaction that sparks dialogue. Are the Oscyls partners, mirrors, alter egos? Embrace, evasion, brush, surrender—each dancer, by conveying their imagination, imprints their Oscyl with the mark of their uniqueness. What is playing out between them: pas de deux, training, manipulation? We no longer know who initiates and who reacts; the relationship is strange, unprecedented.