What kind of show do you put on nowadays if you are a young choreographer who has taken part in the past decade of French dance history ?

Jerome Bel dares to be radical, to stage the unspectacular and an “art of sparseness” that leaves room for poetry. Although at first glance, the title Jerome Bel might seem like a narcissistic provocation, the author has in fact chosen not to hide behind any mere metaphor. Jerome Bel by Jerome Bel stems from a personality who imposes his own unique style. While the topic seems to be self-focused, the actions are intimately bound to the performers, who probe and revel in their nakedness.

Nakedness is the select domain of those Eden-yearners who sublimate natural beauty, or else it involves the grotesque and the monstrous. Jérôme Bel avoids these pitfalls: bodies form beings and vice versa. For this reason, he does not conceal morphological qualities or flaws, especially since this show is about the art of itemising. The performers introduce their identities by writing down their measurements, in chalk, on the black wall of the theatre. They thus jot down their anatomical data, and even disclose their phone numbers and bank account information.

As with Annette Messager’s artwork, the performers trace their personal history upon their bodies, and then twist them through various metamorphoses that come across as digressions. The absence of utopia lets the dancers explore their own characteristics. Their bodies are not exhibited in order to inspire rejection or projection, but are rather put forward as an integral part of their owners. The performers, for that matter, refrain from histrionics.

Jerome Bel by Jerome Bel is perhaps a response to the current context. Contrary to the widespread increase of stage effects, Bel uses an extreme economy of means: there is no décor (the theatre is stripped bare), no costumes (the bodies are naked), no lighting effects (the lighting-technician is on stage and highlights the actions with a simple light bulb). For music, a singer murmurs Stravinky’s Le sacre du printemps. When it’s time to erase the writing on the wall, the dancers use their own fluids like a liberating liquid.

Bel is making a delicate political statement underlining the end of an era, unless he is calling it a day before stepping into a new creative league. In the vein of Malevitch’s White square on white background (1918), where the frame marks the concrete limit of the painting and materialises the unlimited power of white, this dance piece points to the edge of an art form by limiting ornamentation. And yet the show makes wonderful use of the stage space; it is by no means muddled or crudely experimental. On stage, the sublime shadows glow through their gestures. This radical form, which can be seen as both an aesthetic and political act, does not wallow in negation.

For those who wonder what he can create after Jérôme Bel, Bel assures that his imagination is still brimming. This show will not easily fit into the traditional choreographic network, as it doesn’t come with the usual trappings. However, its authentic discourse is capable of affecting an audience, who soon forgets to be shocked by the radicalism of the propositions.