Diego Chamy and Tamara Ben-Artzi at NPAI Festival

Diego Chamy - dance
Tamara Ben-Artzi - dance

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Performance at the NPAI Festival (Le Retail, France), July 20th, 2007.

"Et maintenant la musique" [And now the music]

Diego Chamy & Tamara Ben-Artzi performance at NPAI Festival, on the 20th July 2007

I have to admit I was concerned before the performance by Diego Chamy and Tamara Ben-Artzi. The programme seemed to list one of this pair of Argentinian cousins as performing "dance" and the other "movements". This kind of event would usually have me running for the nearest pub before it could begin, but as we had all been effectively just dropped into the middle of the countryside with nowhere to go until the bus reappeared later there was little to do but sit and watch...

I really have no idea what the resulting performance was all about, but it kept me gripped throughout, although I must admit that this was often due to confused amusement as much as anything. Chamy spent much of the set reading aloud odd lines of poetry in French (I think... could have been Spanish) in a stuttered manner, often "jamming" on the first syllable of the line and repeating it over and over. Whilst this was going on Ben-Artzi danced quietly to herself in a cheesy "teenager in a disco" manner whilst listening to something on an mp3 player around her neck. She would occasionally strike up odd postures around Chamy and hold them as he did similar things, and they would both occasionally run off stage and sit in the wings for a few moments. Later in the set Chamy stood on a chair and feigned a striptease in slow motion standing for a while reading aloud as his fingers were slipped into the top of his underpants before Ben-Artzi handed him a laptop computer and he held it high to the audience as an old film of Brigitte Bardot singing played...

The performance ended in a fitting manner when one of the lights fixed high above the performance area broke away from its cable with a bang and swung violently for a few moments before coming to a rest. This accidental but opportune moment brought an amusing end to a humorous set. I have absolutely no idea if there was anything to take from the performance beyond mild bemusement, but it was a fun thing to see.

Richard Pinnell, Learning to listen, 26/7/2007

A burning meeting between dance and words.

Diego Chamy indolent, lackadaisical and charming awakes a poetry of shame. Humility, is it not the first convincing thing we find in human beeing? Tamara is agitating herself, an mp3 player on her ears, calm and serene. She doesn't do anything, but so well that one could believe it's a plenitude. We crack up laughing, we unleash to the meeting between modern man, machine and performance.

Improvised duet, Diego and Tamara are aware that their affinities are full of charism. In a relaxed atmosphere they rebuild tohether the bases of a new, really alive show, far away from the intellectual arguments of the theatre, from the stiffling choregraphies of contomporary dance with humor. Total rupture with the will of exhibiting, it is more the will of letting oneself go to a natural, musical way of moving of the stuttering of reading. Moment of suspension, they reach both a liberty by silence and stillness just like by movement. Remarkable.

French:

Danse et aucune danse / Sons et mouvement choisis ou non

Une brulante rencontre entre la danse et mots, sur une lecture de "Anthologia" Juan L.Ortiz et "Derniers poèmes d'amour" de Paul Eluard traduit en espagnole par Jesus Munàrriz

Diego Chamy indolent, nonchalent et charmant reveille une poésie de la honte. L'humilité n'est-ce pas la première chose convaincante qu'on trouve dans l'existance humain?.Tamara s'agite un lecteur MP3 aux oreillles, calme et sereine. Elle ne fait rien mais si bien qu'on croirait à une plénitude. On se tord de rire, on se delie jusqu'à la rencontre entre l'homme moderne, la machine et la performance.

Duo improvisé Diego et Tamara sont conscients que leurs affinités ne sont pas sans charisme. Dans une atmosphère détendue ils reconstruisent ensemble les bases d'un nouveau spectacle vraiment vivant, loin des querelles intellectuelles du théâtre, des étouffantes chorégraphies de la danse contemporaine avec humour. Rupture totale avec la volonté de s'exhiber, c'est bien plus la volonté de se laisser aller à une gestuelle musicale naturelle aux bégayements dans la lecture. Moment de suspens, ils atteignent tout deux une liberté par le silence et l'immobilité tout comme par le mouvement. Remarquable.

COLLECTIF P.P.P REPORTAGES DE PARTHENAY REDIFFUSION DU FESTIVAL NPAI 2007, LES EVENEMENTS SONORES, February 2008