Première at Centre culturel suisse in Paris, November 14th 1989.
Show for 3 dancers and 2 screens.
Besides the desire to confront the dance to another code: the projected image, L’Ombre du Doute (The Shadow of doubt) wants to be a nod to the universe of the 50’s thriller. “A woman and her lover kill the troublesome husband. An inspector investigates the death, discovers suspicious items. Seduced by the woman, he will plan with her the murder of the lover, who has become annoying as well…”
The desire to confront the dance, in essence moving, and the image that freezes moments.
One of the interests of this confrontation is that it requires each of the two languages to define itself in relation to the other, which means in the end to define itself. With its possibilities and its limitations too. Finding the right and surprising connexions, that will make the dance and the image stand out. Two languages to tell the same story…
It is the opportunity for dance to afford luxuries such as a stop at 1/125th of a second, other framing and viewing angles. To consider also, in front of pictures revealing clumsiness, awkwardness, unsightly poses, in front of the sacrosanct master of dance. And what if dancing would also mean loss of control ?
And suddenly, the intrusion of colour, as a way to remind that black and white is also a fiction.
Philippe Saire
Au sombre duo de la femme et de l’amant répond celui de la femme et du policier qui éclaire sa partenaire au moyen d’un projecteur de diapositives. Puis c’est le théâtre dans le théâtre qui est ici magnifiquement exploité: peu avant le second meurtre, les trois danseurs semblent cesser la représentation, répètent certains mouvements, réajustent leurs habits… Le public est plongé dans un doute agréablement inconfortable.
Philippe Clot, Le Matin, 12.8.1990
Trame policière, oui. (…) Mais les comparaisons avec le divertissement noir et saignant s’arrêtent là. C’est des plus obscures pulsions humaines que parle L’Ombre du doute, de passion, d’amour et de mort. Situation extrême échappant pourtant à tout esprit caricatural. Avec la sobriété des moyens employés, c’est là un véritable tour de force.
Le Démocrate, 30.8.1990
