Side Steps

Newcomer

Mélissa Guex

Born in Switzerland, living in Switzerland, and full of modern punk: This is what dancer and choreographer Mélissa Guex most recently demonstrated at the Cologne Circus Dance Festival in early June, where she performed two very different works. Both, however, testify to the idiosyncratic approach she is currently using to shake up the dance scene. With the full-length solo Rapunzel and the explosive duo DOWN in collaboration with drummer Clément Grin, Guex reveals a physical vocabulary that oscillates between ritual ecstasy and quiet rebellion. And always digs deeper where it hurts pleasantly.

No tall tower, but a circus ring instead: Guex stands in the middle, alone in a round pool. Glitchy movements, like a painting that's gasping for breath. Where is her long hair? Only the pearl necklace is reminiscent of Rapunzel — a fragile remnant of fairytale beauty. The surrounding tent acts like a second security line — as if she needs to be protected. But does she even want that? Not a longing wait for the prince, but an iconographic upheaval: Like a lasso, the performer twirls a bundle of fringes through the air. The hairy connecting device now marks distance; a hissing danger of femininity. A quiet trash-punk one-woman show: rebellion without noise.

DOWN is quite different. On a meadow framed by skyscrapers and cranes, an energetic dialogue ignites, driven by the electrifying beat of the drums. Guex directs the audience with small hand gestures — casually, almost shamanically. Her facial expressions are the secret center: exaggerated, theatrical, but never mannered. Her stamping movements seem to make the earth muddy, keeping contact with the underworld, raw, archaic, demonic. A shared trip into the abyss. Then: Bengal lights. The sky turns red, the moon shimmers through, and for a moment the urban context disappears.

With her dual presence at the Circus Dance Festival, Melissa Guex impressively demonstrates her versatility and the impressive consistency of her artistic approach. A new project is already planned for next year, in which she will collaborate with dancer Katerina Andreou. She can be expected to once again explore where the familiar ends and risk begins.

Thaddäus Maria Jungmann

DOWN in Lausanne, 4 July; Geneva, 19 July; Vienna, ImPulsTanz, 7, 9 August; www.melissaguex.com