"Art exists in the memory"

The end of our trip had come and our last day of performances began with Creatures. The piece was designed and performed by D'Kabal and Emeline Pubert. The piece had an eery quality of mutation. The performers began independently, moving and creating sound without consideration for the other. As Pubert moved closer to D'Kabal the tone became more aggressive and frantic. Pubert circled the entrapped D'Kabal causing a shift in power. The glass walls surrounding D'Kabal suggested his lack of dominance and that maybe the noises he was creating, manipulating, and repeating electronically were a sort of unknown language between the two "creatures". The climax of the piece broke the boundaries that had been set for most of the piece as Pubert entered the glass case. Their movements and personalities became soft for a moment until Pubert tried to exit, demonstrating once again her dominance, but D'kabal acted out of character and seized his fellow creature rendering her helpless. D'Kabal writes this about the piece "I see an exploration in sound, word and gesture. / I see a bottomless pit that we could distinguish the walls. / I see tight muscles. / Tight throats. / I see bodies that make knots. / I see it a thousand singing one of the songs we sing with the voice and soul. / With the mind and body. / I see a concerto for animals to sleep on the threshold of an imminent revival. / I see slips, trips and inversions in the proposals of each of the materials. / I see unknown lands. / I see the chance encounter of two creatures."

The second performance came quickly after Creatures concluded. Next up was 96 -Born 76-Rebels as the dancers set up their props the audience waited, taking in the unique fairy-tale qualities of the garden space that the performances were taking place in. Once the props and costumes were in place one of the two dancers entered the space. She shuffled slowly onto the stage with coffee cans strapped to her feet. Her costume was a bright ensemble of the colors of the Jamaican flag. The next dancer entered the space with a vastly different personality. Her costume was exact and deliberate, dressed in the colors of the British flag, this dancer had a sort of arrogance to her movement. When the first dancer noticed her she became more stiff and aware of her appearance. The two had a humorous relationship that suggested a fake friendship. While these performers made the scenario comical there was a very obvious and serious undertone to the work that pinned two humans against each other based on their appearance. The piece continued to exemplify segregation and intrusion until an aggressive force entered the space. Two extremely large german shepherd dogs sat at the end of the stage growingly and barking with ferociousness. This oppressive character forced the two dancers to use their energy not against each other but in opposition to the dogs. With a plethora of imagery to follow, the piece concluded on a serious reminder of a better future to come. This piece was created by Mamela Nyamza and performed by Nyamza as well as Faniswa Yisa.

With a jam packed schedule ahead the next performance was Logobi 5. Performed by Richard Siegal and Franck Edmond Yao of Gintersdorfer / Klassen this piece was entirely improvisational and each performer worked to stop the other from producing anything of similar quality to another day of the performing the same piece. The duo worked together with extremely differing styles of movement. Siegal translated the movement and dialogue of Edmond Yao while Edmond Yao worked to trick or confuse Siegal. The pair were extremely entertaining and inviting into the work. Gintersdorfer / Klassen produced the next piece The End of the Western as well. The cast included a bundle of performers associated with the company. This piece had a more serious tone telling the story of the crisis the shook the Ivory Coast two years ago. The interactive structure of this performance allowed the audience to view from any point in the space, the performers spoke directly to the audience as if it was a conversation. Each actor was passionate about what the were saying, to the point that on occasion an argument would erupt. The audience was put through a series of commands that allowed us to feel the emotions that the story was trying to evoke. Here is a photo of the audience participation.

This show was a balanced mixture of information, humor, and charisma.

Our last dinner in Avignon is one that will be remembered forever. We celebrated our time in France and thanked our extremely generous professors Meredith Glisson and Sara Procopio.

The grand finale of our trip was our time spent with Jan Lauwers and the perfromance from his company that followed. Jan was kind enough to take the time to meet privately with our group only an hour before his company was to perform. He allowed us to sit in the theatre with him and ask any questions we had concerning his work and artistry. The students were extremely excited and utilized the time wisely with beneficial and thoughtful questions. Jan spoke about the importance of not underestimating your audience and realizing that the work you create should not come from the hope of pleasing someone but rather the necessity to say what you have to say. His inspiration and insight was one of the greatest experiences we had while in Avignon. To follow this wonderful talk the group saw Jan's company Needcompany perform his newest creation Market Place 76. The show was a genius mix of aggressive traumatic events, hilarious satire, and powerful musical collaboration. To put it simply, this piece was complete and I could not imagine a more perfect way to end our trip.