Romances incertos, un autre Orlando

Nina Laisné and François Chaignaud invite us on a journey into the art of romance, in the company of a multi-faceted Orlando. From this musical material and the stories that traverse it, they have fashioned a piece that intertwines eras and dances: a magic lantern through which the androgynous figures of San Miguel or La Doncella Guerrera parade.

Through her research on Spanish music of the 16th and 17th centuries, artist Nina Laisné has excerpted melodies and narratives diffusing at the crossroads of Baroque music, Sephardic song and romance. Blending musical sources, choreography and images, she has, alongside François Chaignaud, created these uncertain romances, seeking a harmony between dance and music. At the intersection of mixed histories, this three-act recital follows the thread of desire and cross-dressing: in turn a damsel warrior, a lustful archangel and an Andalusian traveler, François Chaignaud intertwines mystical fervor and seduction in his dances. Who is this other Orlando, revealed through these metamorphoses, blurring the boundaries between the masculine and feminine? Alongside a quartet with an atypical instrumentation, where the bandoneon replaces the harpsichord, these characters conjure up ritornellos, ghosts of footsteps that populate the present and enmesh to the point of vertigo.