May 31, 20232 min read

VACUUM At Cyprus Contemporary Dance Festival

Vacuum generates impossible images and fantastic paintings, an interplay of bodies appearing and disappearing between black holes and dazzling lights.

This duo is the third part in a series of performances called Dispositifs, in convergence with visual arts. After Black Out (2011) and NEONS Never Ever, Oh! Noisy Shadows (2014), Vacuum explores a new aspect of our sensory perception through an optical illusion created with two neon tubes. In Black Out, the movements of the dancers drew shapes in some black substance on stage while the audience watched from above. NEONS then staged a couple dancing in a world of lights and shadows. Now, with this third piece, Saire further explores the visual perception of movement.

The result is lyrical and inspiring, as it moves forward through the history of art, from Renaissance paintings to photographic development. Vacuum is a coproduction with Paris Théâtre National de Chaillot and La Bâtie Festival de Genève..

Concept, choreography : Philippe Saire

Choreography in collaboration with the dancers : Philippe Chosson Pep Garrigues

Stage device : Léo Piccirelli

Sound design : Stéphane Vecchione

Technical director : Vincent Scalbert

Construction coordinator : Antoine Friderici

Construction : Cédric Berthoud

Stage management : Mickaël Henrotay Delaunay

Production assistant : Constance von Braun

Video recording & teaser : Pierre-Yves Borgeaud

Photography & graphic design : Philippe Weissbrodt

Music: What Power Art Thou, drawn from Henry Purcell’s King Arthur, performed by Fink and the Concertgebouw Orchestra, Ninja Tune, 2013