Kamuyot

Programming

Another word that doesn’t sound like anything – and for a good reason: Kamuyot is the name of a choreography by Ohad Naharin created in 2003, and recently revived by the Grenade Company, with Josette Baïz in charge of the revival. For me, it resonates between Kamelot and Lancelot, pronounced by an Englishman, with the “t” being well heard.

So when I first heard about Kamuyot, I went to imagine a medieval thing, with the return of Excalibur and the fairy Morgana. I wasn’t there at all.
Then I read the title – the “y” sent me to Asian countries. I was there even less – though. In the soundtrack there is also K-pop.

So, you had understood : Kamuyot is a dance show.

And a show that smells, a little bit, ‘English universe’ – for a French one – because of the “t” so well heard.

Then, yes, there is English spirit, if you consider that this spirit has migrated to other universes and has mutated quite a bit in the process.

The dancers are in ‘idea of Scotland’ mode, the costumes are based on the Punks’ codes, and you can admire the performance of the boys who manage to dance so finely with shoes as big as theirs. Visually, they have discarded the too classical costumes of the dance to appropriate the costumes of the revolt of their great elders.

But they didn’t just work on the visuals and on the soundtrack to put the dance shows back in the heart of young people’s loves.

The spectators will be as close as possible to the dancers: they will form a rectangle around them – and there will be (but yes, it will happen, we are not going to drag this nasty virus that will keep us apart for centuries to come!) exchanges between spectators and dancers – normally spectators will be able to take part in various danced moments, they are invited to do so, when it comes to moving from performance to sharing.

This is why I am so interested in these two companies (the original and the French one): these artists have understood the need to change the relationship with the spectator.

To make this possible and as rich as possible, here are our dancers who have appropriated the street dances – the dances of a part of their audience. And there, normally, it can give something absolutely unforgettable.

So what are we going to do in the theatre? Who’s going to find herself in the streets of the ugly neighborhoods of the town talking to the guys and girls dancing outside, to tell them: Come on guys, for Kamuyot I want to see you on stage.
I give it to you in a thousand.

I’m showing off here – in fact, I already did, when I proposed to the audience to write “the most beautiful love letter”, which would be read just before the performance of Cyrano de Bergerac. And seriously, the letters from the Gypsies, they were beautiful – and seeing them all in the theatre, with their beautiful outfits, their jewelry, their makeup for the girls – all improbable in our theatre, it’s one of the memories that gives me the faith to work for Altair. Yes, all this is possible to realize, nobody is “lost” for a theatre. But you have to move a bit to get the audience.

I’m also going to look for the dance schools of the “ugly neighborhoods”, the dance schools from all places, and organize at least one day of rehearsal with the dancers for those of the public who will want to come.

– And no, I’m not going to tell myself for a second that this work will be useless because we’ll have to stay 1 meter away, under a mask that doesn’t allow us to dance too well – no no no, I categorically refuse this option.

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Featured Image : Kamuyot – by Grenade Company – Josette Baïz : choregrapher / choreography by Ohad Naharin.