“Great artists have chance in their talent and talent in their chance,” wrote Victor Hugo with ballerina entrechats on a slippery slope. But who can claim to know where it comes from, this talent, too scintillating to be honest? Even the author of The legend of the centuries couldn’t quite explain it. Balance born of an inner imbalance? Mix of sensitivity, charisma and intuition? Back and forth between two glimpsed levels of consciousness?
Elusive and yet ostensible as evidence; we feel it. It troubles us. The work of the artist upstream of a work or a performance does not explain everything. Some possess a grace offered in the cradle by a sly fairy that will soon leave them to fend for themselves with the mysterious substance that seals their doom or glory. Usually both.
Often, in a newcomer, the public detects his reflection. On the big screen, watching in 1991 Brad Pitt evolve into a hitchhiking con man in Thelma and Louise of Ridley Scott, we said to ourselves: look at it! He has a dog, that one! We will see him again! The following year, the certainty of Penélope Cruz’s talent as well as her incendiary charm on her debut in Jamon, jamon by the Spaniard Bigas Luna, made us shout the same cry: see you soon in a cinema near our home! It’s certain !
A first novel, a first concert, a first role in the theater let glimpse his delicate flame. Some artists too quickly praised, more fragile, burn their wings there. It also takes strength and faith in yourself to succeed. Others need time to bloom. The best armed begin a brilliant career, with a finger of luck. A star is born !
The other day, I went to see Tohu Until the next me, show directed by Didier Lucien with graduates of the National Circus School. It’s almost theater on the theme of an initiatory journey in a series of paintings: the fall, the loss, the death, the rebirth, the dream. A too disheveled first part gets lost before the substantial numbers.
When an acrobat, falsely injured, revived with the help of heterogeneous instruments, sees masked and staggering cripples from the circus parade, the magic happens. Also in front of a suspended harpist, then during a frenzied French cancan. There is humor, excellent musical choices, games of seduction, winks at the ego of the clowns, dives into the anguish of the characters, dreamlike flights. An unequal spectacle, between enchantments and routs, as in life.
But the most fascinating aspect of the exercise is watching some young people shine like stars, overshadowing others. The 26 graduates on the track have mastered circus arts techniques. Four or five of them give off that je-ne-sais-quoi that lets a bright future dawn. Look! They know how to move. Their charisma is coupled with physical ease. As soon as they appear, we only see them highlighted, they attract us like magnets.
This strong girl like a man, with a magnificent smile, will go far, that’s for sure. A mocking-looking ace of the wheel Cyr stands out. A clown dancer imposes his flexibility and his irony. A few others too. Yet the bulk of the troops will not work in their field of training. We feel it. After so much upstream work… Each discipline brings to whoever comes into contact with it a vision of the world and a sense of effort. Nothing is lost. Nevertheless…
These graduates of trapeze, human towers, contortion, Chinese pole, juggling, dancing or hoop will have acquired their art the hard way during the pandemic years. Ahead of them, the future becomes more cloudy than for the cohorts formed before the crisis. Aside from a few gifted people beaming with promise, many artists who could have perfected their skills in a teeming sector will no doubt find themselves forced into a transformed cultural landscape.
The circus world has lost feathers, as evidenced by the setbacks of Cirque du Soleil in the face of the virus. Everywhere in the field of the arts, it is the next generation that takes the hit. After so many postponed shows, only safe bets are making their way to the public. Risk-taking, exploration, the attraction for novelty come up against the reluctance of the day, the problems of recruiting stage technicians, the galloping dematerialization.
So this collective show at the Tohu also wrung my heart. I wanted to wish them all good luck! All the more so because even the most talented of these arena athletes propelled into the void by a sacred fire will need all their straps to cling to the dream of breaking through.