Dance and trance at the Temps d'images festival

The Temps d’images festival, presented in some ten European countries, came to Montréal from April 4 to 10 for a ninth consecutive year. Playing on the boundary between media and disciplines, six shows took placeat Usine C as part of this festival, which is included in

Printemps numérique.

On Wednesday evening Iattended Moving in this world, by Marie Brassard and Sarah Williams. This piece, at the edge of dance, poetry and media art, explores states of ecstasy caused by psychoactive substances. The sole performer, Sarah Williams, begins with a monologue on the animal and plant origins of poisons that trigger hallucinations: the start of a journey toward the borders of consciousness and invisible worlds. The tone is set.

A recorded narration then begins, serving as a backdrop for her dancing delirium, supported by a digital musical score with distorted accents. As if marking the boundary between reality and psychotropic trance, she removes her clothes to reveal a disco-ball-like dress and begins to dance in her hallucinated worlds. My initial perplexity quickly gives way to real amazement when I realize the scale of the special effects made possible by this simple piece of fabric, animated by

That is what best sums up the technical aspect of the performance: a hybrid art that uses technological effects alongside good old physical objects to create fascinating illusions. At one point the performer seems immersed in a huge aquarium thanks to a plastic sheet set between her and the audience; the reflections from her dress create surreal effects. She also dances hypnotically with the projection of a rotating cube on that same sheet, evoking a shifting consciousness outside the body.

It is

easy to follow the performer as she sinks into several levels of hallucinatory trance. The tableaux painted by her expressive body and the excellent digital effects are fascinating. In short, this is a mature, highly aesthetic show that takes a sober audience into parallel

worlds. Moving in this world was presented as part of theTemps d’images festival, held from April 4 to 10, 2014 at Usine C.