Sans Objet

The other day Steve said he wanted to plan a night out for us. I said okay, and then he came back and told me that he had bought tickets for what he called "some guys dancing with a big, mechanical arm." Hmmmm... he usually has good judgement about these things, but he also comes home from the video store with some pretty random rentals from time to time, so I was a bit skeptical. But he was excited about it, so I figured I'd go along with the whole thing.

Turns out that the performance was called Sans Objet by director choreographer Aurélein Bory and was playing at a theater in Monmarte. It was more performance art than dance, and was an hour and ten minutes of mesmerizing, funny, beautiful, and scary movement with this huge mechanical arm and two guys dressed like Mormon missionaries. The whole thing started out with the arm under a huge plastic sheet, moving in semi-darkness. It was amazing that something mechanical could be so graceful and human in it's movements. And then the guys came in and seemed to slip in and out of existence between movements. And then, from time to time, they would seem to defy gravity to suspend themselves from the arm, and from doing yoga I know they had some major bondas going on to make it look so easy. The performance finished with the huge plastic sheet put up in front of the performers and robotic arm like a curtain and then someone or something beat it to a pulp and then a bright, white light shone through it's tattered remains like stars in a night sky. Seriously super-cool, smart, inventive, French stuff.

So, score one for Steve, because I think it may just be the coolest thing I've done in Paris so far.