site.btaFrench Artist Francois Chaignaud Dances with Snake in Sofia
French artist Francois Chaignaud danced with a live snake at Sofia's Toplocentrala Center for Contemporary Arts on Friday evening. The dance performance entitled "Dumy Moyi" after a Ukrainian song opened the new season at the venue.
The audience is standing during the 35-minute one-man show, which starts in pitch darkness. Chaignaud appears holding the snake. "The idea is to get off to a strong, riveting start for an adrenaline high," the artist says. He has seen different responses - some people walk out, while others enjoy the performance, and still others are left cold by it.
The snake is a symbol of many things: of good and evil, of wisdom and cunning, of poison and healing, the artist says. Until recently he had his own snake, which had travelled with him since the inception of "Dumy Moyi" ten years ago. However, the snake died and now he has to rent one at the venues he plays.
In addition to the Ukrainian song, the show features Sephardic tunes, a song from Umbria and tarantella, a Filipino zarzuela and a Spanish tune. There are also Tchaikovsky's "Fearful Minute" and John Dowland's "Come Away, Come Sweet Love".
"The small audience, coupled with the multiplication of the performance, fascinates me insofar as it has the potential to generate intensity, intimacy and a sense of the extraordinary that a conventional configuration often makes precarious," says Cheynaud. "The effort of physical and mental concentration this setting requires also seems likely to generate the unusual power of the body and drama, away from the daily routine," he says.
The artist is one of the leading figures in New French Dance. He creates a dance experience which goes beyond the confines of movement itself. "I imagine this multi-lingual recital captured within a costume-sculpture by Romain Brau as a sinuous mix of dance, of song...and of liquor," says Cheynaud.
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