Dancers

A lovely day today -- blip sorted on my walk this morning. But I want to talk about the show I went to in Narbonne yesterday evening -- didn't blip, too late, too tired.

S should have been with me, but in his absence I invited Aunt B to use his ticket, since she lives in Narbonne. I wasn't sure it would be quite her thing, but she was delighted with the prospect of an evening out. I got to hers early evening, and inevitably we chatted over a bottle of Clairette de Die (she loves her fizz) and nibbles before setting off for the theatre on the other side of town. It has a very large car park, but I had to do a couple of circuits to find a space. So we weren't surprised to find the place rammed -- the theatre has 900 seats, and there wasn't a free one to be seen.

I wouldn't describe myself as a fan of modern dance, but I've been hooked on Mourad Merzouki's productions since seeing the amazing Pixel in 2016, and have seen three more since then. After the virtuality of Pixel, he wanted to create something more physical, so he came up with Vertikal. All his shows celebrate his background in hip-hop, but this one also reflects his youth at circus school, combining dance and acrobatics.

It was fabulously mesmerising! There were ten dancers, often all on stage at once, rippling, combining in different ways, creating beautiful fleeting tableaus that might last only seconds. The lighting design in his shows is always amazing, and this was no exception. Pounding, urgent music kept us on the edge of our seats a lot  of the time. At first the dancers were largely floor-based, but later bungee cords allowed them to literally run up the walls or float angelically through the air.

Merzouki is so well known he can choose the best dancers, simultaneously sinewy and elegant, making it look so easy for over an hour of intense action using their whole bodies. "Well," said B at the end, "That was amazing, but I don't know how I'll describe it to anyone who asks."

Oh go on, of course there's a video teaser! But it's so immersive that it's far better being there.