Title of Piece:
Benjamin de Bouillis
Created By:
Foofwa D'lmobilite
Artist Website:
http://www.foofwa.com
Venue:
Baryshnikov Arts Center, NYC
Description of Piece:
A piece about the ability to perceive your own body as if you were outside it.
Press:
Deborah Jowitt:
"Benjamin de Bouillis (...) premiered in Geneva in 2005 and won the Swiss Dance and Choreography Prize in 2006. The...
more »Title of Piece:
Benjamin de Bouillis
Created By:
Foofwa D'lmobilite
Artist Website:
http://www.foofwa.com
Venue:
Baryshnikov Arts Center, NYC
Description of Piece:
A piece about the ability to perceive your own body as if you were outside it.
Press:
Deborah Jowitt:
"Benjamin de Bouillis (...) premiered in Geneva in 2005 and won the Swiss Dance and Choreography Prize in 2006. The piece was inspired by the ideas of neurologist Olaf Blanke--specifically by the notion of 'décorporation.' That is, the ability to perceive your own body as if you were outside it--maybe at some distance away--or as if it had become alien, transformed."
"(...) D'Imobilité (...) considers visions of himself. Standing in place, he accumulates a phrase of simple gestures, reacting to sudden harsh breath sounds in Antoine Lengo's collage score as if he felt the presence of some unseen other. He examines himself in the mirror, he walks, he does a remarkable long turn on one leg, he scratches his balls. The mirror, propelled by invisible hands, follows him around."
Alastair Macaulay:
"In the (...) the solo "Benjamin de Bouillis," Foofwa performed nonchalant feats that revealed staggering control. He simply doesn't seem to need to transfer his weight from two feet to one, and it is impossible to find him preparing for balances. He just arrives -- sometimes as part of an extremely convoluted phrase -- in a rock-solid position on one foot with no "voilà" to let us know that other dancers might find that hard."
Deborah Jowitt:
"And whatever gesture or dance step he performs, he's always thinking, always checking himself and the reflected doppelganger who looks back at him like a family portrait on the parlor wall."
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