Dance/Music

BLISS
AN ELECTRO / HIP-HOP PIECE BY COMPAGNIE RêVOLUTION

A night of dazzling dance moves and electrifying music

From its origins in the Bronx in the late 1960s, hip-hop has transformed from a youth subculture into an art form that embraces endless possibilities. Encompassing music, dance, graffiti and other street arts, it was part of the culture of the disenfranchised black communities but its influence has spread and deepened across territories. In contorting their bodies in ways never seen before in hip hop dance, artists find new forms of uninhibited self expression distinct from other established dance genres.

It is a pure joy of dance and movements that Anthony Egéa explores in Bliss, bringing together hip hop, the clubbing scene and electronic music in a feverish, hypnotising world. Set in the clubbing universe, Bliss is an exploration of a wide range of styles and forms, which Egéa breaks, distorts and then abandon. It is a dive into the fantasies, eccentricities and extravagance of nightclubs, where the audience is invited to revel, get lost in a contagious ecstasy and connect in the universality of dance.

An alchemy of styles and movement

This new work emerges from Egéa’s desire to return to the origin and spirit of hip hop. By developing a choreography fraught with different styles, he aims to unite all generations around the shared pleasure of dance. Bliss is a dance alchemy brewed by his years of research and experience. As he travels through the wide range of dance styles and forms, he also breaks them down and distorts them to the point where they are forgotten. It is when his alchemy takes place.

To return to the essence of the movements, Egéa calls upon collective memory while relying on an eclectic music score in the hopes of reaching out to most generations. He turns to electronic music, which, like a chameleon, has the ability to adapt itself to musical styles, and impose its own realm upon them, cutting across time and genres. Yvan Talbot, an acclaimed percussionist who is close to contemporary dance and the hip hop movement, created the music for Bliss.

Beyond the exploration of movements, Bliss is set in a club, where music is played to raise heart rates and pump up adrenaline to the level of ecstasy and fulfilment, which can be at times excessive. It is into this constant intensity and explosive crescendos that Egéa ventures and invites his dancers to join in.

By following the overnight journeys of individuals, one-night performers and talented virtuosos whose stories are revealed and intersected, the mood swings between lightness and intensity until everyone enters a state of delirium and comes close to a trance-like state. It is a percussive, massive dance that is counterbalanced by solos where the virtuoso caresses insanity to win over the audience.