Compagnie Philippe Saire

At the beginning, there was a desire to renew the stage space with a strong scenographic proposal. Since 2011, this approach has given rise to four pieces with an original format: Black Out, Neons, Vacuum and Ether. Salle des Fêtes, structured in three acts, is the fifth part of these 'Dispositifs'. Seated in a circle on the stage, the audience is invited to be close to the action. In the centre, a disc-cover releases multicoloured balloons, inflated with helium, with which two white clowns with masked faces dance. Their strange appearance contrasts with a universe that irresistibly evokes the joy of childhood, popular entertainment and the fake enchanted realms of Walt Disney. As the balloons, connected to their circular structure, pass successively from the ground to the air, before landing again on the ground, one wonders: are these clones intended to entertain us? Or are they charged with embodying, in the manner of a catharsis, our inevitable human heaviness combined with our innate need for lightness and elevation... Refraining from making a decision, Philippe Saire lets everyone taste the consoling magic of a choreography tinged with nostalgia and tender humour. In memory of the delighted child, holding the string of a balloon, who sleeps in each of us.


Philippe Saire
Philippe Saire is a visual arts, theatre and film enthusiast and one of the leading figures on the contemporary Swiss scene. With his company, founded in 1986, he has created some thirty pieces of finely crafted work, including Vie et Moeurs du Caméléon Nocturne and Hocus Pocus. Based in Lausanne, he was awarded the "Swiss Dance and Choreography Prize" by ProTanz, Zurich, in 2004, and for his work and creation space, the Théâtre Sévelin 36, he received the 2013 Special Dance Prize from the Federal Office of Culture.

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