On Thursday 9th of October, at La Cave in Aurillac, the company Seul Ensemble presented “Vaï, Vaï, Vaï”, an intimate and disturbing dance and art installation.
Vaï is played by Camille Henner. Vaï, described as the daughter of artistic folk, is a child-like woman lost between dream and reality. Marcello is a marionette played by Ian Guillaume. Marcello narrates the story of “Vaï, the little Vaï”…
On entering La Cave, we discover the world of Vaï: a room full of magic and weirdness, where dismembered dolls hang from the ceiling and trashed plush toys lie on the floor. As we move further into this little chamber the surprise and slight embarrassment of the public is palpable.
Then, the lights are turned off, and we see a woman in a suitcase, sleeping next to her teddy bears. And, tentatively, slowly, she moves out of her cocoon. Her movements are feline, but her behavior is child-like. Playing with her toys and dancing around them, she disturbs and amuses the observers. Vaï dances with an object, and our imagination gives the object meaning.
Vaï wildly experiences her senses, her environment. Sometimes rough, sometimes gentle, she dances in her quiet little world. It’s the vision of a body abandoning itself to dance. The atmosphere gets even stranger because she starts turning on various music boxes that give out a disturbing rhythm…
As time goes by, Vaï goes deeper into her own world; she seems trapped in her own theatre. Gently, Marcello enters the scene again and asks us to “leave Vaï alone”. The lights go up and, as thunderous applause is heard, a curtain opens on a curiosity cabinet where we can see several strange boxes and photos of this odd circus.
I loved this piece because it was like an inner journey. It gave me a dance experience I had never had before. Once out of the theatre, things just did not look the same anymore... If you get the chance to see this show, then, go!
Article by Lisa Desjobert
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