PORTRAIT – This follower of records now stretches his thread to the theatre. Sportsman with a cool head, usually imperturbable, at the age of 28, today he lets himself be won over by stage fright before going on stage from June 16 to 24 in Extreme bodies.
You would think that Nathan Paulin, who has made breathtaking crossings above the void, would be imperturbable in front of a theater, but the tightrope walker discovered another kind of fear: stage fright.
The 28-year-old “highliner” from Haute-Savoie who has just broken the world record for distance on a slackline (one wire) at Mont Saint-Michel, is taking part in Extreme Bodies, by Rachid Ouramdane. A show presented at the Théâtre National de Chaillot, from June 16 to 24 alongside acrobats and aerialists.
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“The fact of evolving in a theater, in a closed environment, was something that frightened me a little at first, me who relies on the immensities” places, he says. “The fear of emptiness turns into stage fright and fear of disappointing the public”.
As for the “highline”, this sporting discipline which is similar to tightrope walking, he tamed stage fright and “enjoys” during the show where he alternates walking and pauses on a wire, before interacting with the acrobats. The young man, who strikes by his concentration, was however a boy “to dissipated attention”.
“I understood that the stage was a great space of freedom, that you could create whatever you wanted (…) the fact of having 1000 people in front of you and transmitting things directly, that’s very strong”, he explains. And as for crossings, “the people who look at me are much more afraid than me”, he jokes.
Star in his discipline – at Mont Saint-Michel, he traveled 2,200 meters long, perched a hundred meters away -, Nathan Paulin will go on tour, before doing a series of crossings: this summer alone, he will attempt a crossing at above the Pont du Gard, Lake Geneva, Lake Annecy, the port of Bonifacio…
With its performance, it also gives an ecological spotlight, as when crossing the Argentière glacier (Mont-Blanc). The void he crossed “didn’t exist a few years ago, it was filled with ice. And the ice 100 meters under my feet will no longer exist in a few years”, he said. “I live in the Alps. Global warming is twice as fast there as elsewhere, and we want to protect these environments..
reprogrammed brain
He still asks himself questions. At Mont Saint-Michel, “I asked myself: what am I doing on top of this 100-meter crane? I really don’t want to be there.” he smiled. But “Once I start walking, I regain my reflexes”. As with dancers, “there really is a memory of the body. The body learns and does not forget. explains the one who likes to see himself as “100% sportsman and 100% artist”.
With this record-breaking regular, who gives corporate conferences on risk-taking, the aesthetic side came “through the eyes of others” and the transmission of emotion.
Originally from Le Reposoir (Haute-Savoie) to parents who often took him to the mountains, Nathan Paulin tried, in the summer of his 17th birthday, to walk on a wire between two trees. “I was quickly captivated by the meditative side. Walking on a tightrope concentrates me,” he remembers. “It was also a way of accepting my body. I am very tall (1.97m)a little in my corner and on a wire, we have to open up to be in balance”.
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Self-confidence has come “in small steps”. “When we are in the Verdon Gorge it takes years to be comfortable, it’s a bit like reprogramming the brain,” said the highliner who made the crossing twice between the Eiffel Tower and the Théâtre de Chaillot.
Slacklining at the Olympics? He’s not too convinced. “I like the freedom side (…). The fact of structuring freezes things a little too much”.