farmer train swirl – étude2019

This work springs from the desire to develop a dance performance within the habitat of an already existing dance style, taking the exploration of its intrinsic complexity as the departure point for the elaboration of a choreographic object. Farmer Train Swirl – Étude is a kinaesthetic and subjective investigation of the field of house dance — a style born in the clubs of Chicago and New York in the early eighties.

The making of this solo prolongs a two-year process in which Cassiel Gaube mainly dedicated himself to learning and practising house dance, in Paris’ and New York’s lively club scenes. Sampling, appropriation and transformation are at the core of this dance form, which is in itself a synthesis and a development of other dance styles: hip hop, salsa, rasta dancing, tap dance, among others.

Embracing these principles, the artist’s undertaking is here understood not so much as a creation ex nihilo, but rather as the work of sensibly navigating this buoyant ecosystem of practices, of experimenting with the forms which inhabit it and of imagining new ones.

Moves, grooves and attitudes intertwine in fleeting constellations, unfurling the precise lexicon of steps of house dance. Along the way, space is left open for the unexpected to occur and for a hybrid dance to emerge. Farmer Train Swirl is an étude on transformations, a play at the edge of the recognisable.