REVIEW: The Festival d'Avignon Presents LE PAS DU MONDE By Collectif XY

Some festivals go out with a whimper. Once the excitement of the opening production in the Cour d'Honneur has passed, the remaining artists often present more modest, less foregrounded projects. There are concerts, readings, and other events, and it remains a vibrant hub of activity, but it is never quite center stage again. With Le Pas du Monde, Collectif XY ensures that this year's Festival d'Avignon goes out with a bang. Blending breathtaking acrobatics with the aesthetic sophistication of contemporary dance, the circus company has created a performance that is as riveting as it is elegant.

The foundation of Collectif XY's movement vocabulary is tiering. Performers stand on one another's shoulders, constructing shifting human architectures. At the opening, they face away from the audience, forming what resembles a living wall. One performer scales this wall of bodies as though climbing a rock face before taking her place atop the structure, stage left. Yet these tiers are never static. Collectif XY exhaustively explores the possibilities of the form: elevated performers exchange places midair, traverse the bodies beneath them as though crossing a bridge, or are carried across the stage by running partners below, appearing to float effortlessly through the air. At times, three-person columns twist into sculptural forms worthy of Bernini.

The company's twenty-two performers also provide the enchanting vocal score composed by Virginie Benoist, placing the entire performance in the hands of the ensemble. Éric Soyer's lighting strikes an elegant balance between the spectacle of circus and the formal sophistication expected of the Cour d'Honneur, emphasizing moments of acrobatic virtuosity without sacrificing the work's choreographic refinement. Céline Perrigon's costumes, understated by circus standards, unify the performers in a palette of muted colors. Her long-sleeved shirts and flowing trousers privilege the fluidity of movement over displays of physical prowess, reinforcing the production's choreographic sensibility.

At the heart of Collectif XY's practice is the ability to create an acrobatic work that is greater than the sum of its extraordinary parts. In terms of scale, Le Pas du Monde proves a worthy match for the Cour d'Honneur itself. Yet the Cour d'Honneur is not simply a venue for spectacle. It is a space dedicated to serious investigations into the formal possibilities of performance. Collectif XY meets that challenge by treating acrobatics as a movement vocabulary rather than a series of isolated feats. Flips, lifts, twists, and displays of strength are woven into a broader aesthetic language of carefully composed, dancerly movement. For one final evening, the Festival d'Avignon was not merely le Festival. It was, quite simply, a festival.

Photo Credit: Christophe Raynaud de Lage

Recevez l'actualité de Broadway sur WhatsApp

Recevez les dernières mises à jour, les nouvelles de dernière minute et une couverture exclusive directement dans l’application.