So Much Nudity

Last weekend I had two days filled with dance watching. On Saturday, I went to the first few rounds of a dance competition called Danse Elargie that was held at the Hotel de Ville. It was...interesting. Between Saturday and Sunday (when I came back to watch the finalists) I saw about 30 people butt naked. I also saw several pieces that I would characterize as "performance" considering there was little-to-no dancing in them (e.g., a piece where a man played the drums with chalk drumsticks which exploded into many pieces each time he hit his drums and a piece where they forced a live sheep to watch a video of a sheep being skinned). I was disappointed when I saw who the judges (most of whom were not dancers) chose as finalists. It was clear that they went for concept over technique. A piece with untrained dancers painted in gold and wearing cow horns ("alligators" came in later in the piece) was chosen over a really beautiful piece about the goth movement. It seemed like contemporary dance in France is drawing much more from their theater traditions (i.e., absurd) than from their classical dance heritage.

I also saw another ballet at the Palais Garnier. La Petite Danseuse de Degas told the (fictionalized) story of Marie van Goethem, a student at the Opera's ballet school and the model for Degas's sculpture The Little Dancer aged 14. The costumes and lighting were absolutely beautiful! They really made it look like a Degas painting. The story, however, wasn't very interesting, and the choreography was lovely but not extraordinary.

On Sunday evening I went back to the Mission Bretonne to observe a Fest-Diez (day festival). Everyone was enjoying themselves very much either on the dance floor or at the bar. I began talking to one woman about the connection between dance and culture, and pretty soon there was a small crowd around me. Everyone there was so friendly and so excited to talk about these subjects! I can't wait to go to Bretagne and experience these festivals on an even bigger scale.