L’Art de voler (The Art of Flying) entangles us in Kitsou Dubois’ universe. As a choreographer and dance researcher, she has focused since the mid-90’s on the body in weightlessness state. The movie, interspersed with interviews of scientists and artists whom she collaborated with, follows the creation process for the duo Attractions plurielles (Plural attractions) for female dancers and acrobats. 

On the brink between jubilation and fear, with no benchmarks, experiencing weightlessness requires self-overcoming, or at least the ability to let go. Kitsou Dubois, both scientist and artist, studied and analysed the phenomena linked to gravity and its laws. Through parabolic flights and underwater investigations, alone or accompanied by creators such as Bertrand Lombard, Jorg Müller or Laura de Nercy, she experienced how a change of weight alters the body. Only after a continued process was she able to translate on stage the choreographic language and body technique she developed. Learning this technique “changed the world view” of Jeanne Ragu and Pauline Barboux, the young interprets of Plural attractions.

(Myriam Bloedé)

Choreographer and dance researcher
Artistic director of Ki Productions

As part of her partnerships with scientists and researchers, Kitsou Dubois has been on parabolic flights – the only way to experience zero gravity while staying “on Earth”, whereby a plane goes up to a high altitude, turns off the ignition and comes down in free fall. The body is rendered weightless for 20 seconds, and then crashes back onto the plane floor. These flights recreate the zero-gravity living conditions of astronauts in orbital stations.

In 1990, Kitsou Dubois went on a parabolic flight organised by the CNES (National Centre for Space Studies), which allowed her to experience a few seconds of zero gravity. From this original experience, she has developed projects based on the body faced with states of altered gravity: she has worked on the bodies of dancers in the water, of acrobats on circus apparatuses, and of astronauts in the plane. She now examines through her productions how movement is born, the ambiguity of the body’s limits, and the moment of appearance.

Her choreography creates new states of the body, which blur the limits between heavy and light, dancers and acrobats, live bodies and projected bodies. Visuals are both the witness and memory of the weightless body, and a privileged partner that offers other densities to the body. They also help to open up the stage onto other spaces.

Kitsou Dubois creates dreamlike plays, which distort the audience’s perception. Movements alternate between disorientation and anchorage. The bodies of the performers and the bodies of the spectators are linked in a common disorientation. During this artistic’ course, the company has developed expertises and original propositions to meet various audiences (workshop in water, nights “come back flights”, meetings between artists and scientifics…)

Source :Kitsou Dubois 's website

More information : kitsoudubois.com