The performers of Tragédie show that they belong to the human community, thumping the ground, walking, standing, facing one another, sliding, kneeling, appearing and disappearing, holding one another to avoid falling over… and expressing our shared destiny. When it was first performed at the Avignon Festival in 2012 it was received like a choreographic punch in the face, instantly becoming Olivier Dubois’ statement piece and a monument of contemporary dance that has been performed many times since. Obsessive, magnetic, even hypnotic, it brings together raw earthbound power and human fragility, sweat and beauty, intoxication and tumult. Nudity becomes secondary: only their intoxicating presence and the weight of their bodies remain. They invite us to join the swirling dance without false modesty and without fakery, until we too enter a frenetic trance. Fearless of the world’s commotion, they tell us who we are.
