Competition gone crazy

Toulousebased Compagnie Ieto kicked off La Fete’s dance programme this year, offering Bangkok glimpses into the wonders of acrobatics and architectonics in the style of nouveau cirque last Thursday and Friday at Chulalongkorn University’s Sodsai Pantoomkomol Centre for Dramatic Arts.
The show began with two men sitting on a bench: Mosi Abdu Espinoza Navarro with the mischievous grin of a joker and Fnico Feldmann with his stern demeanour. It was the serious one, though, who started showing off his prowess by exploding effortlessly into a series of speedy spins and blackflips across the stage.
Navarro responded to the bluff with his taunts of amateurish cartwheels, and soon after the duo was locked at their hands in a flow of body curls and flight of kicks.
The power struggle didn’t just end on the ground, but also continued atop the upended wooden benches as the two took turns trying to reach the highest point. As soon as Feldmann succeeded, the playful Navarro didn’t hesitate to knock it over, sending Feldmann flying and the bench slamming down amid several screaming spectators.
Then they formed a giant “T” out of two benches on top of which they balanced at different ends. This was Feldmann’s chance for a little revenge. Suddenly releasing the weight off his heels, he could control the stance of the plank as well as Navarro like being the stronger kid on a seesaw.
With genuine risks in the production, everything hung on the relationship between the two. As the design of the benches became more intricate, the rivalling duo also became more cooperative.
They tied the ends of four benches together with rope and created a swaying structure, over and between which they precariously scamper about and slide down. It looked like they were riding on forceful waves, especially when the soft notes of piano and string instruments changed to a crescendo of more intense, screeching music at this point.
These were skilled performers, and the audience knew it was more likely than not that they were going to be safe. Still, there was a sense of tension that made me want to grip the shirt of someone on my side.
 Accompanying the creation of each structure was the voice of a precocious little girl talking about slightly worrying matters. She said she liked to turn the water in the shower from extremely hot to cold in one go just to keep things exciting, and wondered whether electric shock would make guinea pigs less fat and boring.
As ridiculous as they might sound, these statements – like the show itself – reflected the human desire, if not need, to push boundaries. As artists, Feldmann and Navarro perhaps felt they had to keep striving to take their skills to new levels and realms.
For the final number, the duo once again roped the benches together, gradually turning them into a shiplike structure with two planks at an angle. They ran another rope between the planks, twisting it tighter and tighter as the audience’s tension rose higher and higher.
Here, Navarro took the spotlight, leaving Feldmann to silently observe his tightrope act from the top of an isolated upended bench backstage. Navarro didn’t simply walk the tightrope. He also danced and bounced on the slender space to the sounds of strings and brass as if being in a trance, but at the same time with absolute precision.
The only drawback to this magical act was that it ended rather abruptly and felt really short compared to the time spent on slotting the benches into place. I was left wondering if there could be more.

BOX
Adieu, Pichet

La Fete’s next stage presentations are the final two of more than 120 performances of the dance dialogue “Pichet Klunchun and Myself”. That’s next Monday and Tuesday at 8pm at the same venue.
Seats cost Bt400 (Bt100 for students) at www.ThaiTicketMajor.com and (081) 559 7252.
Find out more at www.PKLifeWork.com, www.JeromeBel.fr and the “La Fete Bangkok” page on Facebook.