{"id":185535,"date":"2018-07-13T12:24:00","date_gmt":"2018-07-13T17:24:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/esse.ca\/?post_type=compte-rendu&#038;p=185535"},"modified":"2023-04-13T12:43:32","modified_gmt":"2023-04-13T17:43:32","slug":"fractus-v-sidi-larbi-cherkaoui-eastman","status":"publish","type":"compte-rendu","link":"https:\/\/esse.ca\/compte-rendu\/fractus-v-sidi-larbi-cherkaoui-eastman\/","title":{"rendered":"<em>Fractus V<\/em> <br>Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui \/ Eastman"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<pre class=\"wp-block-verse\">[En anglais]\n\nThe contemporary dance world is no stranger to controversies surrounding gender disparity in the workforce, issues of racial inequity, or the exploitation of ethnic \u201cotherness\u201d as a marker of cultural exchange and worldliness. Perhaps there is no better example of the contradictions espoused by the progressive values of dance than Ted Shawn, the \u201cFather of American Dance\u201d (1891\u20131972) whose nativist, racist, and xenophobic explorations with eugenics are well documented. In the 1930s, following a collaboration with <ins>h<\/ins>is former wife Ruth St. Denis, Shawn formed an all-male dance company that showcased masculine movement and athleticism. He then founded the internationally recognized and critically acclaimed Jacob\u2019s Pillow Dance Festival (c.1933) in the Berkshires of Massachusetts.<\/pre>\n\n\n\n<p>Considering Shawn\u2019s troubling legacy, it is fitting&nbsp;that on its 86<sup>th<\/sup>&nbsp;anniversary the Jacob\u2019s Pillow Dance Festival presented Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui \/ Eastman\u2019s&nbsp;<em>Fractus V<\/em>, a performance that poignantly departs from Shawn\u2019s representations of cultural difference while also addressing issues of masculinity and violence. Bringing together a total of nine performers, five dancers<ins>,<\/ins>&nbsp;and four musicians, from different cultural, ethnic, and stylistic backgrounds, Cherkaoui\u2019s work highlights fractures between national, linguistic, and artistic identities and investigates how they might coexist or come into friction on stage through movement, sound, and scenography. Inspired by the texts of the Jewish-American linguist and political philosopher Noam Chomsky, the work explores the relationships between the individual and the collective as it relates to political and social propaganda, as well as media and information consumption.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sitting in the Ted Shawn theatre waiting for the performance to start, it was impossible not to consider the overwhelming whiteness of the audience, composed largely of middle-aged New Englanders who had come to experience the mythical festival on its opulent and fairy-tale-like estate. With great awareness,&nbsp;<em>Fractus V<\/em>&nbsp;forces its audience to confront the relative ease with which it selectively opts out of reflecting on disquieting realities, choosing instead to uncritically accept the information presented by various officially recognized news&nbsp;outlets. These considerations take shape through both movement-based and vocal\/instrumental choreographies that allow each of the performers to showcase the particularities of their training and background, as well as more theatrical and didactic scenes. While not all equally effective or clear in their relation to the overall themes, each segment resonates with it its own potent corporeal energy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" src=\"https:\/\/esse.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/Cherkaoui-Eastmans_FractusV_Webzine-2018.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-185538\" srcset=\"https:\/\/esse.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/Cherkaoui-Eastmans_FractusV_Webzine-2018.jpg 1920w, https:\/\/esse.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/Cherkaoui-Eastmans_FractusV_Webzine-2018-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/esse.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/Cherkaoui-Eastmans_FractusV_Webzine-2018-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/esse.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/Cherkaoui-Eastmans_FractusV_Webzine-2018-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/esse.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/Cherkaoui-Eastmans_FractusV_Webzine-2018-600x400.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui \/ Eastman, <em>Fractus V<\/em>, 2018. <br>Photo: Christopher Duggan<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>A powerful combination of collective and solo work, <em>Fractus V<\/em> showcases elements of hip hop, breakdance, flamenco, and contemporary dance, as well as the musical prowess of Japanese percussionist Shogo Yoshii, the Korean musician Woojae Park, the Indian Sarod musician Soumik Datta, and the Congolese singer Kaspy N\u2019dia. Many of the most interesting moments in the performance occur when stylistic elements combine or overlap to create experimental permutations. When Cherkaoui, well known for his fluid rubbery movements, joined Fabian Thom\u00e9 Duten in a rhythmic flamenco duet, the lead choreographer\u2019s often flowing and disjointed gestures seemed to take on a new structure and identity adapting to Duten\u2019s own style. Masculinity and \u201cbrotherhood,\u201d a central element of the show, also seemed to unravel when the male dancers interwove arms, legs, and heads to create a grotesque flailing being. Polymorphic and multifaceted, these physical overlaps between collective action and the individuality of each performer incited a reflection on the bonds that unite men\u2014on the complexity of masculinity and patriarchy as systemically moulding and oppressive forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Two striking and uncomfortable sequences stand out, in which dancers depicted violent acts of masculinity through exaggerated, virtuosic, video-game like movements. In one instance, Cherkaoui, sitting to the side of the stage&nbsp;on a wooden chair with a television remote in one hand and a&nbsp;<em>TIME<\/em>&nbsp;magazine in the other, repeats a series of hand gestures signalling the mindlessness of media consumption. At centre-stage, a white performer, Shawn Fitzgerald Ahern, is repetitively shot by three other dancers holding mock guns for what felt like an interminable period of time. Punctuated by percussive gunshots echoing through the theatre, Ahern\u2019s body reacts to each round with uncanny flexibility and dynamism, viscerally communicating the devastation enacted upon him. In an American context where the continued threat and use of violence by police against Black and Brown bodies has become an endemic issue, the scene felt frighteningly real and simultaneously commonplace. When Ahern was finally exhausted and stripped of his clothing, photographed and filmed by his assailants<ins>&#8211;<\/ins>turned<ins>&#8211;<\/ins>reporters, and Cherkaoui was dramatically knocked off of his chair by a series of falling panels precariously poised since the beginning of the scene, someone in the audience began applauding enthusiastically.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Cheering at the repeated physical representation of an execution, its documentation, and the subsequent dissemination and misrepresentation of it in the media, the inadvertent slip of the audience member captured the complacency Cherkaoui sought&nbsp;to criticize. Almost on cue the predominantly \u201cliberal\u201d and affluent audience leered and celebrated the spectacle of violence, feeling polite outrage from the safe distance of their comfortable seats. Eighty-six years after Shawn started Jacob\u2019s Pillow Dance Festival with a display of&nbsp;<ins>(<\/ins>white<ins>)<\/ins>&nbsp;athletic masculinity, Cherkaoui and his collaborators reshaped the presentation of all-male virtuosity on stage\u2014a reality that might have been lost in its own sea of white privilege.<\/p>\n<div style='display: none;'>Didier Morelli, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<strong>Ted Shawn Theatre<\/strong>, Jacob\u2019s Pillow Dance Festival, Beckett, MA<\/br><br>July 11 \u2013 15, 2018<\/br>","protected":false},"author":1303,"featured_media":185536,"template":"","categories":[131,503],"numeros":[],"disciplines":[],"statuts":[],"checklist":[],"auteurs":[163],"artistes":[6021],"type_compte-rendu":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v20.1 (Yoast SEO v22.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Fractus V Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui \/ Eastman &#8211; Esse<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/esse.ca\/compte-rendu\/fractus-v-sidi-larbi-cherkaoui-eastman\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"fr_FR\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Fractus V Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui \/ Eastman\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Ted Shawn Theatre, Jacob\u2019s Pillow Dance Festival, Beckett, MA July 11 \u2013 15, 2018\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/esse.ca\/compte-rendu\/fractus-v-sidi-larbi-cherkaoui-eastman\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Esse\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/fr-ca.facebook.com\/revue.esse\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-04-13T17:43:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/esse.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/Cherkaoui-Eastmans_FractusV_Webzine-2018-2.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1920\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@revue_esse\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Dur\u00e9e de lecture estim\u00e9e\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Fractus V Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui \/ Eastman &#8211; Esse","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/esse.ca\/compte-rendu\/fractus-v-sidi-larbi-cherkaoui-eastman\/","og_locale":"fr_FR","og_type":"article","og_title":"Fractus V Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui \/ Eastman","og_description":"Ted Shawn Theatre, Jacob\u2019s Pillow Dance Festival, Beckett, MA July 11 \u2013 15, 2018","og_url":"https:\/\/esse.ca\/compte-rendu\/fractus-v-sidi-larbi-cherkaoui-eastman\/","og_site_name":"Esse","article_publisher":"https:\/\/fr-ca.facebook.com\/revue.esse","article_modified_time":"2023-04-13T17:43:32+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1920,"height":1280,"url":"https:\/\/esse.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/Cherkaoui-Eastmans_FractusV_Webzine-2018-2.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_site":"@revue_esse","twitter_misc":{"Dur\u00e9e de lecture estim\u00e9e":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/esse.ca\/compte-rendu\/fractus-v-sidi-larbi-cherkaoui-eastman\/","url":"https:\/\/esse.ca\/compte-rendu\/fractus-v-sidi-larbi-cherkaoui-eastman\/","name":"Fractus V Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui \/ Eastman &#8211; Esse","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/esse.ca\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/esse.ca\/compte-rendu\/fractus-v-sidi-larbi-cherkaoui-eastman\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/esse.ca\/compte-rendu\/fractus-v-sidi-larbi-cherkaoui-eastman\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/esse.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/Cherkaoui-Eastmans_FractusV_Webzine-2018-2.jpg","datePublished":"2018-07-13T17:24:00+00:00","dateModified":"2023-04-13T17:43:32+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/esse.ca\/compte-rendu\/fractus-v-sidi-larbi-cherkaoui-eastman\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"fr-FR","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/esse.ca\/compte-rendu\/fractus-v-sidi-larbi-cherkaoui-eastman\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"fr-FR","@id":"https:\/\/esse.ca\/compte-rendu\/fractus-v-sidi-larbi-cherkaoui-eastman\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/esse.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/Cherkaoui-Eastmans_FractusV_Webzine-2018-2.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/esse.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/Cherkaoui-Eastmans_FractusV_Webzine-2018-2.jpg","width":1920,"height":1280,"caption":"Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui \/ Eastman, Fractus V, 2018. Photo: Christopher Duggan"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/esse.ca\/compte-rendu\/fractus-v-sidi-larbi-cherkaoui-eastman\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/esse.ca\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Reviews","item":"https:\/\/esse.ca\/compte-rendu\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Fractus V Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui \/ Eastman"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/esse.ca\/#website","url":"https:\/\/esse.ca\/","name":"Esse","description":"Read Art","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/esse.ca\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/esse.ca\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"fr-FR"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/esse.ca\/#organization","name":"Les \u00e9ditions Esse","url":"https:\/\/esse.ca\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"fr-FR","@id":"https:\/\/esse.ca\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/esse.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/logo-esse.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/esse.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/logo-esse.jpg","width":316,"height":89,"caption":"Les \u00e9ditions Esse"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/esse.ca\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/fr-ca.facebook.com\/revue.esse","https:\/\/twitter.com\/revue_esse","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/revueesse\/","https:\/\/ca.linkedin.com\/company\/esse-arts-opinions","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCa9jXCKqjDjvnGahVnBKQNA","https:\/\/fr.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Esse_arts_+_opinions"]}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/esse.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/compte-rendu\/185535"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/esse.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/compte-rendu"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/esse.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/compte-rendu"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esse.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1303"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esse.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/185536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/esse.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=185535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esse.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=185535"},{"taxonomy":"numeros","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esse.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/numeros?post=185535"},{"taxonomy":"disciplines","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esse.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/disciplines?post=185535"},{"taxonomy":"statuts","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esse.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/statuts?post=185535"},{"taxonomy":"checklist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esse.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/checklist?post=185535"},{"taxonomy":"auteurs","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esse.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/auteurs?post=185535"},{"taxonomy":"artistes","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esse.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artistes?post=185535"},{"taxonomy":"type_compte-rendu","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esse.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/type_compte-rendu?post=185535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}