• Français
  • English

Salto mortal

"Toméo Vergès's excellent, very precise choreography is built around abrupt changes and moments of dissonance. Expressive, undulating, and charming even at its most serious, it has southern highlights and colors. We sense that the piece is turned outward. The influence of surrealism comes through in certain scenes, as does a sense of poetry and humor, both well-served by excellent dancers. They evolve with poise and fluidity—varying from whirlwind-like intensity to soaring freedom. Salto Mortal was a lovely way to end National Dance Center festival Traverses.

Thierry Guérin, La République du Centre, June 7, 1999

 

Is this a nightmare or a joke? "No one knows who he is, where he is, or why. Perhaps we are but captives of our own dreams." Here again is Calderon's question: Is life a dream? If so, what are dreams?
Here dance and theater are intertwined, realism and fantasy offer a series of powerful images that have no obvious narrative connection, but that all inhabit the changing spaces imagined by set designer Emmanuel Clolus.
Tomé Vergès and his collaborators play with ideas of sexual attraction, jealousy and death. Where can we better satisfy these desires than in dreams?
Vergès was a pleasant surprise this evening. It is always a pleasure to see dancers whose choreography manages to give nightmares a certain beauty. 

Maurice Piotte, L'Echos du Centre, March 13, 1997

 

Multifaceted Catalonian artist Toméo Vergès places himself at the cutting-edge of post-modern dance even as he revives surrealist and futurist currents from the roaring twenties. He forewarns us that, in Salto Mortal, there are no characters: "In the beginning was the Body."
Salto Mortal leads us through the sinews of dreams and imaginary places using a variety of choreographic ideas including falling bodies, robotic movements, and a game of musical chairs involving four dancers and just one chair. The show's phantasmagoria is accentuated by screams, sound effects, voiceovers and musical interludes, not to mention moments of silence. A touch of Satie and Max Jacob are here too. 

Gilberte Cournand, Les saisons de la Danse, October 1996

 

credits