Arthur Perole Tendre Carcasse

The issue of intimacy and, relatedly, identity, have long been at the center of Arthur Perole’s creative work. Whether in RÊVES, the documentary series he codirected with Pascal Catheland about the students of a middle school in Draguignan or in his solo piece Nos Corps Vivants, which premiered in 2021, the choreographer likes to probe people’s relationships with themselves and others. Along these lines, Tendre Carcasse dramatizes the quasi autobiographical stories of four young performers, two boys and two girls. As in a confession or conversation among friends, they tell gently but unerringly about their adolescence, their physical hang-ups and their difficulties dealing with all kinds of prescriptions. Over an alternately dark and subdued soundtrack, each voice is accompanied by “speech gestures” that gradually break away from normalizing views. The body prevails over words, and dance, partying and techno trance pave the way for a joyful collective liberation. And everyone gets to make peace with their own story. 

Isabelle Calabre