IT WAS HARD NOT TO GET CAUGHT UP in the breathless crush of the crowd at the North American premiere of In-I—the much-anticipated duet by famed British dancer Akram Khan and Academy Award-winning French actress Juliette Binoche. Critics, local celebrities and members of Montreal’s dance elite who assembled at Centre Pierre-Péladeau this week shared a sense of curiosity. A flip through the program revealed only that Ms. Binoche was dressed by French fashion house Lanvin, her make-up provided by Lancôme (for which she is a spokesperson); and her assistant is a Yale graduate.
With a self-referential wink, Binoche sits with her back to the audience in the opening scene, gazing intently at a flickering screen.
She tells us that she fell in love with a man (Khan) just from watching the light of a film steal across his face. Her story, a short series of confessions about following him out of the movie theatre, into the metro, and onto his street, is rendered more intimate on a stage transformed into a cinémathèque—that shadowy place of fantasy and illusion. It is a clever diversion, as the audience inevitably examines her every move, looking for signs of a body newly trained in dance, though well versed in dramatic gesture.
One of the most candid—and tongue in cheek—moments is when Binoche and Khan tango around the stage, bickering. “That’s the wrong step,” he hisses through clenched teeth. “So I fucked up,” she exclaims defiantly. Their chemistry is unmistakable, not only an electric pull, but also an ability to convey a relationship as it settles into the tedium of domestic life, the repetitions of the everyday. Masterfully mirroring the couple’s shifting moods, the space they inhabit changes imperceptibly from cozy apartment to barren Beckettian landscape under the assured eye of set designer and renowned artist Anish Kapoor. At one point, the same screen that had illuminated her lover now holds Binoche up off the ground with otherworldly force, leaving her to kick the air and sputter in anger. “Is this love?” she wonders aloud.
When apart, Binoche and Khan have a chance to showcase their inimitable talents; she, building her words up into frenetic explosions of emotion and he, spinning into deliriously quick, sharp angles. Yet the duo is even more compelling when each is exploring the other’s art form, their bodies careful, respectful, and vulnerable conduits of an unfamiliar craft. It is a process that, at times, makes In-I feel incomplete or not realized to its full potential. But then love’s like that; closure is desirable but rarely attainable. Instead, the thrill of experimentation, interpretation, and improvisation were as lovely a sight as choreographed perfection.
Showing Friday, January 9th, Saturday, January 10th and Wednesday to Saturday, January 14th – 17th at Centre Pierre-Péladeau as part of the Danse Danse 2008/2009 season.
