Chutes incandescentes is an enchanting experience. This rare theatrical moment by Benoît Lachambre is intelligent, intense and intimate, and an opportunity to discover Clara Furey in the full flower of her many talents. This is Clara Furey in fusion, a fusion of her deep, voluptuous voice, whispered and frail but always in tune. She sings her own songs as well as others composed to poems by Rumi. She also recites texts inspired by the dreams of Benoît Lachambre that echo the fall of the god Rama, in love with the beautiful Sita (Ramayana), in a voice that conveys the passion and mystery of desire. A fluid fusion of body and flesh that rolls, coils, pushes, repels, pulls, attracts, breaks away from and rejoins the wooden body and sounds of the piano, an object of attraction and repulsion that she uses and abuses as she extracts the most incredible, unexpected sounds, the piano tethered to the body. Her body itself is an instrument of darkness and light, of movement and voice, and ever sensual. This is a subtle universe that combines trans-cultural and transpatial references in a bewitching, remarkable performance whose thunderbolt impact makes a lasting impression on the bedazzled spectator.
Clara Furey is a graduate of the LADMMI school of modern dance. She has worked for the choreographers David Pressault, Pierre Lecours and George Stamos. In 2009 she participated in Dans les charbons at the Quat’Sous theatre, a “meat-eating poetry†show by Loui Mauffette. She had previously collaborated with him on Poésie, sandwichs et autres soirs qui penchent, presented in 2008 at the FTA, where she also perfomed in a new piece by Danièle Desnoyers, Là où je vis. Clara Furey is also an exceptional pianist who trained at the Conservatoire municipal de Paris. A writer, composer and dancer, she gives voice and piano recitals and composes music for the stage, as she did for Danièle Desnoyers’ most recent piece, Dévorer le ciel, in January 2010. Since 2004 she has also made her mark as an actor, performing in the feature-length film CQ2/Tout près du sol, directed by Carole Laure
In 2005 Lachambre presented 100 rencontres at the Festival de théâtre des Amériques, and the following year created “I†Is Memory for Louise Lecavalier. For the 2008 edition of Festival TransAmériques, he offered something new (again featuring the blonde dancer), Is You Me. This duo was created in conjunction with the visual artist Laurent Goldring and the musician Hahn Rowe, who had previously composed the music for his 2004 duo with Meg Stuart, Forgeries, Love and Other Matters. In 2006 Lachambre danced for Boris Charmatz, created the futurist fable Lugares Comunes with Germana Civera, and sang for Charmaine LeBlanc along with three other dancers in their forties. He was back at the FTA in 2009 with Body-Scan. In that piece he worked with both Su-Feh Lee, an artist who like him commingles energies and cultures, and the photographer Robert Flynt.
“Dancers Clara Furey and Luciane Pinto are first placed in the winter scene wearing parkas. Their amazing bodies are able to arch and contort in such a way that they are facing backward, but their arms and the backs of their heads are toward the audience portraying the front of the body, their faces concealed with hair.â€
Paula Citron, The Globe and Mail, September 2009
“B.L. seems to approach dance creation and performance like a miner, digging for core samples, revealing layers of body and spirit.â€
Susan Kendal, The Dance Current, 2008
Written and performed by Clara Furey | Benoît Lachambre
Music: Clara Furey
Choreography & Direction: Benoît Lachambre
Texts: Clara Furey + Benoît Lachambre + Jelaluddin Rûmi
Lighting Design: Lucie Bazzo
Set Design: Benoît Lachambre in collaboration with Anick la Bissonnière
Props Designer: Alain Jenkins
Coproduction Festival TransAmériques + Agora De La Danse + Rencontres Chorégraphiques Internationales de Seine–Saint-Denis
Presented in association with Agora de la danse
Redaction: Aline Apostolska
Traduction: Neil Kroetsch