Faune, or In the Head Is Not On the Stage

Jocelyne Montpetit’s Faune, photo by Andrea Lopez

Some mornings you get off on the wrong foot. And on some of those days, it seems it’s the wrong foot that keeps dragging you forward. It’s the way I felt when I went to see Jocelyne Montpetit’s solo Faune at l’Agora de la danse this week. The piece gets off to a bad start and never manages to lift off the ground thereafter.

It begins with a melodramatic reading by Francesco Capitano of a melodramatic text by Vaslav Nijinski. Already, the self-importance of both source and execution managed to cause eruptions of giggling in some spectators around me, understandably. It would not help much later when opera would be used to dig the melodramatic hole even deeper.

Then Montpetit makes her entrance to Arvo Pärt’s “Für Alina”. There was still hope at that point, but by the time Pärt’s music came back for a book ending, one of my favorite pieces of music had effectively been ruined for me. A nude Montpetit slowly walks across the stage carrying a dress made out of tissue-paper. I’m usually one to enjoy works that dare to live at a slower pace, but Faune never manages to create a cohesive, involving experience.

After reaching the end of the stage, Montpetit puts on a dress and hides behind the back of a chair. A strong frontal light casts the shadows of the bars over her body. The show also offers a few other moments of cheap symbolism such as this one.

Influenced by buto, the movement is slow and minimal, but the choreography simply doesn’t hold up. Neither does the sound, which is a choppy alternation between music tracks and Nijinski’s text.

The performance also leaves a lot to be desired. Montpetit performs as if she were in her own world, oblivious to the audience that sits before her. Her body seems possessed and as such becomes reminiscent of similar corporal emergences in horror movies; yet, her movement is also not without reminding us of Vanna White or the Barker beauties, and needless to say that the two do not mix to the best effect.

Despite its best efforts – or maybe more accurately because of them – one of the few places Faune manages to be successful is in being funny, and this ironically because it takes itself so seriously. Montpetit’s over-the-top performance often reminded me of the creepy older female characters that have been creeping up in David Lynch’s films.

Faune is the kind of work that loses itself by being too much in its creator’s head, and not enough in the audience. While it may be great to perform it, the audience’s experience of the piece simply doesn’t work at the same level.

PREVIEW The sole dance offering this week is occurring one night only, Saturday, February 16 at 8:30pm at Studio 303. Centering on the theme of “Boxes”, it is a tribute to imprisonment, limits, restricted movements, explosion, discontinuance and the need of transgression. With works by Propeller Dance Propeller Dance (Jen Renata Soutter, Shara Weaver and Alan Shain), Emma Waltraud Howes, Genevieve Gagné/Emily Honegger, Silvy Panet-Raymond and Leyya Tawil. Regular tickets are 12$, and 10$ for students. For more info: www.studio303.ca