<img src="https://img.lemde.fr/2023/09/27/0/0/6499/4331/664/0/75/0/d7687ac_1695825848966-the-season-s-canon-crystal-pite-ludmila-pagliero-jei-rei-my-loup-quer-z9z9667-c-julien-benhamou-onp.jpg" srcset=" https://img.lemde.fr/2023/09/27/0/0/6499/4331/556/0/75/0/d7687ac_1695825848966-the-season-s-canon-crystal-pite-ludmila-pagliero-jei-rei-my-loup-quer-z9z9667-c-julien-benhamou-onp.jpg 556w, https://img.lemde.fr/2023/09/27/0/0/6499/4331/600/0/75/0/d7687ac_1695825848966-the-season-s-canon-crystal-pite-ludmila-pagliero-jei-rei-my-loup-quer-z9z9667-c-julien-benhamou-onp.jpg 600w, https://img.lemde.fr/2023/09/27/0/0/6499/4331/664/0/75/0/d7687ac_1695825848966-the-season-s-canon-crystal-pite-ludmila-pagliero-jei-rei-my-loup-quer-z9z9667-c-julien-benhamou-onp.jpg 664w, https://img.lemde.fr/2023/09/27/0/0/6499/4331/700/0/75/0/d7687ac_1695825848966-the-season-s-canon-crystal-pite-ludmila-pagliero-jei-rei-my-loup-quer-z9z9667-c-julien-benhamou-onp.jpg 700w, https://img.lemde.fr/2023/09/27/0/0/6499/4331/800/0/75/0/d7687ac_1695825848966-the-season-s-canon-crystal-pite-ludmila-pagliero-jei-rei-my-loup-quer-z9z9667-c-julien-benhamou-onp.jpg 800w" sizes="(min-width: 1024px) 556px, 100vw" alt="Ludmila Pagliero and Jérémy-Loup Quer in Crystal Pite's " the="" seasons'="" canon"="" at="" paris="" opera,="" september="" 19,="" 2023."="" width="100%" height="auto">
Are smoke machines becoming the new best friend of contemporary productions? In theater, as in dance, they are used to create an intangible, mysterious atmosphere. They can also provide support to a narrative that lacks substance, or obfuscate the plot in a cloud of vagueness – in short, it seems like any occasion is a good one to fire up the smoke machine.
The new ballet season's program at the Paris Opéra has not escaped the pyrotechnic smoke trend. The three short pieces presented on Saturday, September 23, including the successful rerun of The Seasons' Canon (2016) by Canadian choreographer Crystal Pite and the two creations choreographed by Marion Motin and Chinese artist Xie Xin, blanket the stage in layers of fog intended no doubt to enhance their interpretation. Motin's Last Call plays an urban, sepulchral card, while Xie opens the floodgates to release waves of fog upon her Horizon.
The all-female trio, whose common motif could be a sense of togetherness and unison, offers a "quick-sugar" menu, with no surprises, let alone any edge. Motin colors her "ballet-show" with 16 dancers arranged in clean lines sumptuously patterned by laser lighting. Centered around a telephone booth symbolic of bad news as the title The Last Call suggests, the choreographer – who has collaborated with Stromae (in seven clips) and with France Gall – unfurls an existential fable about a living man (Alexandre Boccara) and death (Axel Ibot).
<img src="data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' viewBox='0 0 664 443'%3E%3C/svg%3E" data-srcset=" https://img.lemde.fr/2023/09/27/0/0/8256/5504/556/0/75/0/87488bb_1695825858072-the-last-call-marion-motin-c-julien-benhamou-onp-z9z7885.jpg 556w, https://img.lemde.fr/2023/09/27/0/0/8256/5504/600/0/75/0/87488bb_1695825858072-the-last-call-marion-motin-c-julien-benhamou-onp-z9z7885.jpg 600w, https://img.lemde.fr/2023/09/27/0/0/8256/5504/664/0/75/0/87488bb_1695825858072-the-last-call-marion-motin-c-julien-benhamou-onp-z9z7885.jpg 664w, https://img.lemde.fr/2023/09/27/0/0/8256/5504/700/0/75/0/87488bb_1695825858072-the-last-call-marion-motin-c-julien-benhamou-onp-z9z7885.jpg 700w, https://img.lemde.fr/2023/09/27/0/0/8256/5504/800/0/75/0/87488bb_1695825858072-the-last-call-marion-motin-c-julien-benhamou-onp-z9z7885.jpg 800w" data-sizes="(min-width: 1024px) 556px, 100vw" alt="" the="" last="" call,"="" by="" marion="" motin,="" at="" paris="" opera,="" september="" 19,="" 2023."="" width="100%" height="auto">
Because the hero strangles himself from the outset with an old-fashioned telephone cord, it leaves little room for any suspense, and the narrative is too weak to add to a story in which everything has already been said. Micka Luna's suggestive music pulses with dance beats and the multicolored latex costumes are a sight to behold, but Motin's know-how doesn't save the production from a conventional, commercial tone.
In a more timeless, sculpted genre, Horizon, by Xie, who founded her company in 2014 in Shanghai after a career as a performer notably with Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, rolls out a continuous ribbon of movement. Dressed in costumes of moire silk, the nine dancers come to life, straightening up and slumping down in oscillating forms, energized by and confounded with one another.
<img src="data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' viewBox='0 0 664 443'%3E%3C/svg%3E" data-srcset=" https://img.lemde.fr/2023/09/27/0/0/8013/5342/556/0/75/0/2f1523f_1695825961151-horizon-xie-xin-c-julien-benhamou-onp-z9z4385.jpg 556w, https://img.lemde.fr/2023/09/27/0/0/8013/5342/600/0/75/0/2f1523f_1695825961151-horizon-xie-xin-c-julien-benhamou-onp-z9z4385.jpg 600w, https://img.lemde.fr/2023/09/27/0/0/8013/5342/664/0/75/0/2f1523f_1695825961151-horizon-xie-xin-c-julien-benhamou-onp-z9z4385.jpg 664w, https://img.lemde.fr/2023/09/27/0/0/8013/5342/700/0/75/0/2f1523f_1695825961151-horizon-xie-xin-c-julien-benhamou-onp-z9z4385.jpg 700w, https://img.lemde.fr/2023/09/27/0/0/8013/5342/800/0/75/0/2f1523f_1695825961151-horizon-xie-xin-c-julien-benhamou-onp-z9z4385.jpg 800w" data-sizes="(min-width: 1024px) 556px, 100vw" alt="" horizon,"="" by="" xie="" xin,="" at="" the="" paris="" opera,="" september="" 18,="" 2023."="" width="100%" height="auto">
Carried on the soaring sounds of Sylvian Wang's music, a fantasized world with no boundaries between nature and humankind dissolves and is then reborn, weaving its way through spirals of smoke. Xie's calligraphic flow, influenced by contemporary and Chinese techniques, runs (almost too) smoothly and is nonetheless performed impeccably by the group.
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