Le Centaure et l'animal

With its jet-black set, the MC93 cultural centre at Bobigny has created a Kafkaesque ambiance for ‘Le Centaure et l’Animal’ (the centaur and the animal), back for another season after its hugely successful 2010 run in Chaillot. Created by Bartabas and Kô Murobushi, the show brilliantly mixes daredevil horseback riding with Japanese Butoh dance for a tense foray into the troubled waters of the animal soul. A dialogue through choreography, shot through with elements of metamorphosis, the piece is greatly inspired by Lautréamont’s celebrated masterpiece ‘The Songs of Maldoror’. On one side of the set, a spider’s body is rent asunder by its contortions, while on the other a horse seems to have escaped from the banks of the Styx. The minimal beauty of their otherworldly dialogue is deeply moving.