Jérôme Bel: the naked truth

(©Herman Sorgeloos)

While the French choreographer may no longer be an enfant terrible and the show that bears his name, Jérôme Bel, may be nearly twenty years old is, that legendary production has lost none of its lustre. At least, that is what Bel and his colleagues are setting out to demonstrate this week at the Kaaitheater.

The world premiere of Jérôme Bel took place in the late summer of 1995 at the Bellone Brigittines Festival in Brussels. It was Bel’s second show – the first was drily labelled Nom donné par l’auteur – and came about at the request of Patrick Bonté, who is now director of Les Brigittines. “I had nothing to lose; I was young, determined, and exceptionally arrogant,” recalls Bel with a laugh. “The task I set myself back then as a choreographer was to answer the question, ‘What is a dance show?’ The answer was: bodies, music, and staging. So in that production I looked for the minimum: a space, men, women, light, and sound. That choice was partly dictated by financial considerations, but there was first and foremost a clear concept underlying it. What Roland Barthes called “Le degré zéro de l’écriture”, the minimalism of Carl Andre, and John Cage’s 4’33” were hugely important for me. They still are, indeed. So I stripped away everything that was superfluous: I wanted to go to the essence.”

In Jérôme Bel, the actors Eric Lamoureux, Claire Haenni, Yseult Roch, Gisèle Pelozuelo, and Frédéric Seguette are naked onstage. The setting is exceptionally austere: black walls and floor, the “bare” starting point of the stage. The actors write the names of important twentieth-century figures – including Thomas Edison and Igor Stravinsky – on the wall in chalk. The lighting comes from a lamp that the actors pass to each other. Somebody whistles and hums The Rite of Spring; the actors measure parts of their bodies and write the measurements on their skin with red felt-tip pens. It is this simplicity that gives Jérôme Bel its radical quality and poetic poignancy: it has at its heart the body, weakness, and vulnerability.

Although the choreographer regularly revives older works, Jérôme Bel has been an exception: “The last revival was in 2008, in the context of a retrospective in London. When the Kaaitheater approached me, I wasn’t interested at all. But the actors [the original cast! – IS] quite liked the idea. Over the last few weeks, we have rehearsed the familiar material again. But we did so in a critical spirit. Anything that felt obsolete was ruthlessly jettisoned. We asked ourselves what this show still means today and whether we could appeal to younger generations with it.”

Bel continues to come up with influential shows, at his own, leisurely pace. The last time he was a guest in Brussels was in the summer of 2012, when he presented the premiere of Disabled Theater, a witty work featuring ten people with learning disabilities, at the Kunstenfestivaldesarts. “Right now I am working on Atelier danse et voix, a production with young people from the suburbs of Paris. The context is purely French, but who knows, maybe it will develop and we will be able to interest Belgian audiences too in the ultra-local.”

JÉRÔME BEL • 14 & 15/2, 20.30, 16/2, 15.00 (+ Matinee Kadee film workshop, 4 > 12 years old, advance booking required), €8/12/16, Kaaitheater, square Sainctelettesquare 20, Brussel/Bruxelles, 02-201.59.59, www.kaaitheater.be