In a field of wild grass, under a greyish sky, Philippe Decouflé and Pascale Houbin, accompanied by the accordion, sign (use sign language) in their fashion C'était bien, Bourvil’s song. Superimposed on this sign language is a whole series of whacky actions, coming somewhere between a comic strip and a fantasy puzzle.

Various vegetables fall from the sky, while other falling objects resembling hieroglyphs are supposed to illustrate Bourvil’s words. A subtle work of speeded up images on editing means the length of the song matches that of the choreography… In all, four minutes of sheer joy.

Source : Fabienne Anvers

More information : cie-dca.com

Dancer, choreographer, director and art director

As a child, I dreamt of becoming a comic book artist. Drawing is usually the start of my creative process. I just throw out ideas and sketch out pictures that pass through my head. My culture is comics, musicals, nightclub dancing, and also Oskar Schlemmer, the Bauhaus choreographer. Discovering photos of characters from his Triadisches Ballett was a revelation for me. I had always wanted to work with simple geometric shapes like cubes and triangles. I liked seeing how these lines and volumes behaved with each other. Alwin Nikolaïs taught me the importance of light and costume, and the confidence you need to mix everything together. Technically, it was Merce Cunningham who taught me the most about dance. I was taking video courses he was giving in New York. It was fascinating. That’s where I learned how to solve problems of distance and geometry, and the basic principles of optics and movement. Tex Avery inspired me a lot in thinking up gestures that are almost impossible to do. I’ve always kept something of that desire to create something strange, extreme or crazy in my movements. I’m looking for a dance style that’s off-balance, always on the verge of toppling over. With influences like the Marx Brothers, for example, and in particular Groucho Marx, I’ve developed a taste for naughty risk-taking, and comic repetition of mistakes.

Source : Philippe Découflé

More information : cie-dca.com