The review of reviews. The generic subtitle of the journal Spheres perfectly fits its playing field and its editorial ambition: “Small communities, big stories”. This invitation to celebrate the micro that contains the macro has already proven itself in issues devoted to riders, tattooed people or even re-enactors, fans of historical re-enactments. This is to say the extra-wide range of this young editorial staff of curious enthusiasts led by Lucas Bidault, Simon Rossi and César Marchal, who launched their first issue in January 2020.
With “The Dancers”, the stated and successful ambition is to sweep wide while remaining glued to its subject. Very swing, the summary zooms in and out from classical to hip-hop, from pros to amateurs by offering varied points of view. “The story of a photo” told by its author dialogues with that of the pointe shoe, key figures echo the presentation of these new scenes of the dancers that are the social networks, confidences of amateurs are related to a survey on the attraction of advertising for the choregraphy. That is, in total, more than fifteen facets for a mosaic vision of the dancing planet.
Multi-layered cake
In the big pieces section, the long-term interview with actress Bérénice Béjo and the star of the Paris Opera Ballet, Hugo Marchand, highlights the commonalities and differences between professions that can be observed when they’re not eyeing each other. In 2017, the actress, who regularly attends the Palais Garnier, in Paris, where she spotted the talent of Hugo Marchand, ventured, in a piece choreographed by Sylvain Groud entitled Trois Sacres, around the Rite of Spring, by Stravinsky. Suffice to say that the conversation goes quickly and well between these two artists who compare their practices, freely address questions of the body, stage fright, beauty…
The other dossier tackles the question of gender. From tango, highly coded in the matter, but which evolves towards new horizons less strictly “assigning”, to krump, apparently virile but not only, the clichés jump. The issue is also based on two fascinating encounters with the American dancer gender fluid (whose genre varies over time) Chase Johnsey and the French choreographer Philippe Lafeuille, director of the Chicos Mambo company.
This multi-layered cake of 144 well-illustrated pages multiplies the surprises. Among the tastiest, the portrait of the Polish opera singer and breaker in his spare time Jakub Jozef Orlinski, a posthumous escape with Lucette Destouches, who shared Céline’s life and gave lessons on the floor of their house, and confidences by Cédric Klapisch, whose film In Body, will be released in theaters on March 30, 2022. A shimmering and well-balanced dance tour for connoisseurs and neophytes alike.
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