Compagnie Marie Chouinard: “Henri Michaux: Mouvements"

On the 27th November of 2013, in the Schouwburg in Arnhem, The “Compagnie Marie Chouinard” performed an incredible work named “Henri Michaux: Mouvements”. This piece has the hands and mind of Marie Chouinard in the choreography, artistic direction, lightning, set design, costumes and hairstyle. The original music is from Louis Dufort, the Sound environment is from Edward Freedman and the poem/ Post face/ projected drawings are from Henri Michaux, from his book “Mouvements” of 1951. It’s also important to say that this piece was performed by 10 dancers and this work was produced with the support of ImPlusTanz (Vienna) in the 2^nd august 2011.

Marie Chouinard discovered the book “Mouvements” by Henri Michaux in 1980. This book composed by 64 pages of drawings and also a poem that occupies 15 pages, presents to the choreographer some multiform figures that Marie Chouinard read it literally as a score for her choreography, and then she proceeded to decrypt the drawings. It is interesting to see that the transition of the book to dance was made page for page, drawing for drawing and word for word, the poem was also included in the choreography.

The drawings were projected in the background of the stage one by one, allowing us (spectators) to also read the book of Henri Michaux and do a personal reflection and reading of the images of the author of the book. The dancers were dressed in black and dancing on a white floor just like the white page and the black drawings being projected on the background. Has Gia Kourlas wrote in the “New York Times” at the 9^th November 2013: “They could be shadow puppets.”

For me this work of Marie Chouinard was refreshing and bright, not brilliant, not perfect but it is not really far from that. It is incredible to see how a simple idea, a simple choreographic score can create such a beautiful and challenging performance not just for the dancers/ performers that are in the stage but also for the audience that is sited on their chairs but at the same part being challenged physically and mentally. I think that everyone that likes to see dance or performances should go to see this piece. The simplicity of it shows us that we don’t need to be complex to appreciate or to do something beautiful, artistic, enjoyable and challenging. 

Reviewed by: João Santiago