The stage is an arena, a clearing where men and women confront their frank desires and test their sharp wits. The dancers execute a seamless blend of classical and modern techniques with ferocious intensity. The choreography alternates languid passages of slowed down dancing with space-eating, brutally blunt and physically incisive movement. The work is dark and bleak, savage, erotic, playful, unpredictable and extreme. Unprovoked violence breaks out in a dance hall from the smoky encounters of closely held couples.
Dancers obey a screamed signal to change positions and freeze.
Inert, vulnerable, they are fondled by a half naked woman. Six men execute a gymnastic game of musical chairs, linked by the rising momentum of physical virtuosity and split-second timing. Bodies are flung into a head like so much scrap. Two polar bears interrupt a love due and snatch the lovers apart. The first part of Paysage apr s la bataille was created and performed at the Th tre des Salins-Sc ne Nationale of Martigues on December 7 th , 1996.