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IMPRESSIONS FROM PARIS: Fabrice Lambert Explores Flow of Water in "Renverse" (Reverse)
By Ann Moradian
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Published on April 20, 2025
Fabrice Lambert's "Renverse." Photo: Alain Julien
Concept & Choreography: Fabrice Lambert
Visual Art: Guillaume Cousin
Lighting: Philippe Gladieux
Music: Patrick de Oliveira
Assistant to the Choreographer: Hanna Hedman
Performers: Anthony Barreri, Eve Bouchelot (en alternance), Prunelle Bry, Vincent Deletang, Elsa Dumontel, Hanna Hedman, Harris Gkekas, Noé Pellencin, Agathe Thévenot
Le Théâtre de Rungis, France
March 2025
Fabrice Lambert’s new work Renverse (Reverse) is a mesmerizing movement voyage exploring the flow of water in the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), which includes the Gulf Stream.
Music, by Patrick de Oliveira, vibrates low and combines with shades of dark blue light, designed by Philippe Gladieux, to create the sense of being under water from the very first moment.
Eight extraordinary dancers are swept up in the current, gliding smoothly one after the next on feet that patter sideways, backward and forward. They trace a repeating infinity sign in space. Gathering into a group huddle, they leave one dancer, then another standing in stillness for a moment. Yet the overall flow never stops. Jumping lightly, the dancers reach, suspend and thrust. Legs, arms and torsos swirl. Their bodies create images of waves splashing, or the heft of water heaving in a storm.
The performers pause in tableau, suspended mid-motion from high to low in an arc through space as the floor becomes a delicious green blue hue, like algae in water. Swooping arms curve and bodies spiral in small whirlwinds accentuated by reversals of direction and unexpected pauses. Between the lights and the soap bubbles that float magically upward — sometimes with puffs of smoke escaping as they pop — this dance feels like an immersive experience. The use of a smoke machine was, however, definitely overkill.
The dancers’ contribution to this work shows up in astonishing invention, beautifully crafted by Lambert into a refreshing swish of a dance. My favorite moments are the movements I have truly never seen before and cannot quite describe. It is stunning to see limbs, hips or heads swivel, slosh, twist, burst or reverse against momentum in defiance of our traditional understanding of what bodies can do. They seem propelled by an outside force that cannot be predicted.
Settling into stillness around an amber light, the group lifts one dancer. Pockets of shadow and light reveal glimpses of bodies as they roll and shift. When the dancers speed up — leaping, sweeping, flipping, skipping, spinning in chaotic patterns through space — it is a miracle they don’t smack into one another. I cannot fathom how they have the stamina to continue, but they do. Darkness takes over, with occasional flashes like lightening. We hear feet on the floor and breath, but we only catch glimpses of movement.
Bubbles continue to float and burst in a purple-tinged world. I am not persuaded that the strobe lights and club music enhance anything as we near the end.
A quiet, deep-sea moment emerges in pinks and reds reminiscent of a healthy coral reef. This a magical world, full of power, beauty and invention. But the ending just sort of stops, which is disappointing and does not do this work, or its spectacular performers, justice.
