Premiere at festival Théâtres d’été in Nyon, August 16th, 1996. Choreography for 4 dancers.
Small natural disasters is a return to Philippe Saire’s more narrative style. This piece is indeed a “story” that of a relationship which, because of its triangular nature, prevents desires ever being fully satisfied. As in Harold Pinter’s Betrayal, the characters’ interactions become steadily more corrupted by small deceits, falsehoods, compromises: “natural disasters” which, although minor in themselves, have a disproportionate power of destruction.
Alternating with the trio sequences a solo figure strives to show that human integrity can be kept intact, despite apparent corruption.
As an allegory of irresponsability, Small natural disasters is delivered with a lightness which, on reflection, is completely deceptive.
“Philippe Saire’s movement vocabulary mixes order and disorder, falls and jumps, flow and precision with the finesse of a watchmaker. Optimistic, full of vitality, energetic, it proves that despite the calamities of the world, man continues to go forward.”
Journal de Genève (CH) 1996
“Bittersüsse Flirts. Compagnie Philippe Saire aus der Schweiz triumphierte im Schauspielhaus. Ein Mann, zwei Frauen. Das kann nicht gut gehen und ging wohl noch nie gut. Doch noch nie war das Scheitern der Dreiecks-Romanze so schön wie in den Petites Catastrophes Naturelles, den zu deutsch weniger wohlklingenden kleinen Katastrophen des Alltags der Schweizer Compagnie Philippe Saire, die dem Tanzherbst am Wochenende den Höhepunkt aufsetzte.”
Die Tageszeitung Bremen (D) 1996
“The Philippe Saire Dance Company closes the Festival des théâtres d’été Nyon with an inventive, moving creation. A waltz between desire, falsehood and destiny. (…) In a series of sequences packed with humour and inventiveness, three dancers depict the everyday interactions between people, shown by display, attraction or rejection. The gestures are light and rapid, the moves danced with precision, and the expression varied and clear. From gaiety, the mood changes to unhappiness when jealousy appears or when events take a wrong turning. Intervening between these sequences, a lone, enigmatic figure reacts somberly to images of natural disasters. The choreography avoids the temptation to moralize, and allusions to natural threats to the trio’s happiness are sketched in with welcome lightness.”
Isabelle Fabrycy, Le Matin, August 1996
Choreography
Philippe Saire
Dancers
Karine Gasset,
Corinne Rochet,
Massimo Biacchi,
Philippe Saire
Set and light design
Jean-Marie Bosshard
Costumes
Isa Boucharlat
Music
Beethoven,
Gus Viseur