Decouflé’s SOLO

This is a solo of much daring : daring solitude after twenty years of group work, daring to show his feet, to show photos of his parents and daughters, daring to imagine that the mere movement of his fingers could be as devastating as an earthquake, daring to play oneself… For Philippe Decouflé it is an almost impossible challenge. It is hardly simple to portray both life and art from every possible angle - private and public, serious and fanciful - but only a revealing solo holds any real interest for Philippe Découflé. Appearing naked does not worry him, but he is equally capable of conjuring away reality, of playing hide-and-seek with the truth. Using a simple and at the same time sophisticated array of screens and cameras, the choreographer ensnares the audience with images and shadows which can interact in infinite ways. The choreographer is the mainspring of these projections. He takes the hand of this virtual partner, who resembles him like a brother, and is exhilarated by the dizzying number of reflections he can create. In seeking to escape an ordinary world by generating a universe as excessive as his imagination, Philippe Découflé reveals to us the essence of his obsessions in art : how to contemplate one object from several angles at the same time, how to tell a story in detail and as a panorama, how to metamorphose the body into an abstract kaleidoscope. Steeped in illusion, this solo is like an auto-choreographic fiction : it is the ideal life of a man and a dancer in search of constant wonder.