From a neon perspective
In his own, purpose-built theatre in Lausanne, Swiss scenographer and choreographer Philippe Saire explores the sensuality of neon light. Dancers are shown from above, and bodies appear and disappear in the pale, grey setting. Realities become blurred in the interchanging light and darkness, and the dancers’ horizontal movements on resin granules create illusionary images.
In Lausanne, Philippe Saire is working on a series of pieces to confound the viewers’ eyes. With cleverly designed lighting, Saire uses scenography and choreography to play with perspective and challenge the audience’s perception habits. With fluid, yet extremely precise images, he creates complex illusions by confusingly simple means. In “Black Out”, the audience is afforded a birds-eye view of the dancers, whose bodies create ever new patterns on the floor, which is covered with black resin granules. In “Vacuum”, the duo made up of Philippe Chosson and Pep Garigues appear horizontally in a device consisting of metal bars and neon tubes, creating the intermittent impression of an aerial view. The audience rarely sees the dancers’ entire bodies but rather perceives them as abstract images.
These two pieces have now been supplemented by “NEONS”, a dance-theatre piece that works with growing and fading light. The starting point of the “Dispositifs” series, based on scenography as much as choreography, was the concept of dark matter, leading to light, or to be more precise, to neon light. “Black Out” is one of the rare pieces to be staged in a purpose-built theatre. Here, the scenography is not provided for but generated by the performers. The images they create with the resin granules on the floor are the real stars of the show.
Perspectives
What motivated Philippe Saire to break down the performance hierarchy and raise visual effects to the standing of choreographic work? A diverse artist, Saire’s work touches on the visual arts, involving interventions in public spaces as well as video art. His series “Cartographies – Interventions chorégraphiques en paysage urbain” forms a link with the “Dispositifs” series. As he says, his work in the public sphere, which he is returning to today, sharpened his sense of perspective. “I always work in different architectural contexts and urban landscapes. In the hills around Lausanne you can often get a good top-down view. Later it occurred to me that I had been – more or less unconsciously – transposing my explorations in the public sphere on to the stage.”
All three pieces in the “Dispositifs” series are based on a scenographic structure rather than a thematic topic. Instead of jumping on the LED bandwagon, he decided to use good old neon lights. “Real neon tubes are rare and expensive. Their light conveys interesting grey tones. And it struck me that when it falls on human skin, it creates a kind of graphite effect. It makes the body look like a pencil drawing. You can even create a kind of sfumato effect, with interesting shades and nuances. The neon light also creates special effects on the walls, which we use in ‘NEONS’.”