Diptyque: A Standing Boy and With My Own Hands (double bill)

Performance Space 122 teams with the second annual Crossing The Line Festival, in collaboration with the French Institut Alliance Française (FIAF) to present the double bill A Standing Boy and With My Own Hands. French director Pascal Rambert and choreographer Rachid Ouramdane, for the first time, present back-to-back performances of two autonomous dances in conversation with one another. The two performance pieces comprise a third through the audience’s experience of comparing and contrasting them, challenging the audience to forge a complete oeuvre from two separate parts.

Diptyque is created through collaboration between these two leading French artists and U.S. collaborator Kate Moran; this is a double presentation, in both spaces, of two major works, set in conjunction and contrast with each other. Both dances are solos engaged in fascinating ways with identity, one in blinding whiteness, the other in blinding blackness.

Without realizing it, the artists often speak to each other. With My Own Hands presents a naked woman, with male genitals on a plinth, each body part microscopically lit. A Standing Boy is a solo performance featuring Ouramdane surrounded by projections of nature. Gender, presence and the idea of the performer are all thrown into confusion in this dizzy two bodied free fall.

Co-presented by the French Institute Alliance Francaise (FIAF) as part of Crossing the Line 2008.