The “Bal des Folles” was a Parisian institution of the 19th century, no less spectacular than any opera event. Once a year the doors of the La Salpêtrière psychiatric hospital opened and all Paris came to dance with the inmates. Sigmund Freud was among the doctors who visited the famous hospital for further training. His hometown of Vienna, the Parisian cultural chic, the fin de siècle, the hysterics and femmes fatales of the turn of the century – all of this haunts the two-parter “Marie and Pierre” at the Basel Theater. The choreography by Bobbi Jene Smith, the start of Adolphe Binder’s new dance direction, makes the neural fantasy machine in your own head run hot and triggers a huge stream of associations. Which is attractive, but also problematic at times.
Bobbi Jene Smith’s choreography “Marie and Peter” in Basel. – Culture
