What do choreographic creation and culinary creation have in common? Exquises (Delicacies) is the singular work that French dancer and choreographer Annabelle Bonnéry and visual artist François Deneulin have devised for the Lanabel company, founded in 1998.
A choreographic banquet that features the gastronomic performance of chef Thierry Moyne, owner of La balance restaurant in Arbois (Franche-Comté), and sommelier-artist, which Oriente Occidente has chosen to stage at MUSE.
A horseshoe of tables where the audience is invited to sit delineates the stage for the danced service. Welcomed with a glass of wine and an entrée, the diners will discover everything as it unfolds: the delicious dishes received as surprises and the unusual service delivered through dance. By orchestrating a meeting between the arts, Bonnéry, Deneulin, and Moyne call upon their expertise to stimulate the senses of the participants: taste undoubtedly with the exquisite courses, but also hearing and sight. Because the not-at-all-improvised dancing waitresses Annabelle Bonnéry and Jennifer Dubreuil – who were thoroughly trained in the practice of serving at Moyne's restaurant – mischievously extend the dishes, surprising diners with spins and jumps on the table, articulating the names of whimsical courses, and playing among themselves like hares waiting to end up in the next dish of the chef. It might seem like a cabaret, but instead, it is a skillful show that Bonnéry, a former dancer of Jean-Claude Gallotta and Maguy Marin, has managed to create by multiplying entrances and exits, changes of rhythm, and points of encounter with her partner-waitress Gondol and the chef working behind the tables. A refined contemporary gestural language full of grace and an intriguing pantomime blend together with voices imitating the peremptory orders shouted in kitchens around the world. And for fifty minutes, the audience is overwhelmed by delicacies: they eat with their eyes and taste buds, immerse themselves in the ‘work’ sounds transformed into concrete music by Marie-Pascal Bertrand, discover the behind-the-scenes of a restaurant, receive the bill, and chat with the diner next to them.
