For most present and past human cultures, celebrations of both life and death involve forms of collective practice of dance and music. The Western civilization has been known to let these “village” practices fade away as it transitioned to modernity and urbanity. Dancers, musicians and party-goers have been more and more specialized, and therefore, separated.
“Fête” is a playful invitation to stimulate the rituality of our dancing. In a space without a stage, audience and performers mingle, forming, for the most part, a collective circle (or several concentric circles, depending on the size of the space/the amount of people).
Besides traditional rituals, the circle is also to be found nowadays in our modern dance cultures in the shape of “jams” or “battles”. The circle proposed by “Fête” is not quite a jam or a battle, because of the choreographic input shaped by the performers: The performers are at the same time Master of ceremony, Shamans, Storyteller and Instructors. “Fête” acts as a modular storytelling system – its drama is not told by the sole performers, but by the ensemble of performers and audience.
