COMPAGNIE PHILIPPE SAIRE

At the beginning, there is a desire to renew the scenic space with a strong scenographic proposal. Since 2011, this approach has given birth to four pieces in the original format: Black Out, Néons, Vacuum and Ether. Salle des Fêtes, structured in three acts, is the fifth part of these “Devices”. Seated in a circle on the set, the audience is invited to get as close as possible to the action. In the centre, a disc-shaped cover releases multicoloured balloons, inflated with helium, with which two white, masked clowns dance. Their strange appearance contrasts with a universe that irresistibly evokes the joy of childhood, popular entertainment and the fictional enchanted realms of Walt Disney. While the balloons, connected to their circular structure, pass successively from the ground to the rafters, before coming to land on the ground once more, one wonders: are these clones trying to distract us? Or is their role to embody, through catharsis, our inevitable human weight combined with our innate need for lightness and elevation … Leaving it up to the audience, Philippe Saire allows everyone to taste the consoling magic of a choreography tinged with nostalgia and tender humour. In memory of the delighted child, clutching the string of a balloon, that sleeps in each of us.

Philippe Saire

With a great passion for visual arts, theatre and cinema, choreographer Philippe Saire is one of the leading figures in the contemporary Swiss scene. With his company founded in 1986, he has created around thirty pieces with perfectly chiselled direction, including Vie et Moeurs du Chameleon Nocturne and Hocus Pocus. Based in Lausanne, he was awarded the 2004 “Swiss Dance and Choreography Award” by ProTanz, in Zurich, as well as the 2013 Special Dance Prize of the Federal Office of Culture for his place of work and creation, the Théâtre Sévelin 36.