Review: Chaillot – Théâtre national de la Danse / Rachid Ouramdane CORPS EXTRÊMES

Patrons are greeted by an on-stage 5m high, pale sheer face concrete wall, as they enter the auditorium. Its angular grips and ledges will be unmistakable to anyone who has gone climbing at an indoor facility. Suspended above is a lonely high wire awaiting its companion tightrope walker.

Rachid Ourdane’s conceptualisation which is set to the guitar twanging sounds of composer Jean-Baptiste Julien, benefits hugely from drone video footage by Jean-Camille Goimard which is projected onto the blank edifice. The images of both a tightrope walker and a rock face climber are impressive and beautiful, but will also be exceedingly unsettling for anyone who suffers from agoraphobia or vertigo.

As the troupe climb, leap, catch, dangle, twirl, twist, roll and generally throw themselves around (and at each other), one feels an odd combination of serenity mixed with boredom and the piece never quite gets going or reaches the giddy heights of expression and artistry which one hopes for. Despite the talents on show, it all feels a little self-absorbed and never cracks a smile, (where perhaps a troupe such as La Syncope du 7 might have managed). In a world where attention spans continue to diminish, the flash of phone screens and audience members checking the time, was not an especially encouraging sign, for all the good intentions and commendable ethos behind the piece.

If you’re sufficiently intrigued and partial to a bit of existential communing with the majesty and power of nature (as you contemplate your imminent death on the rocks below), the troupe give a second performance of the work on Wednesday evening.