PLAGE ROMANTIQUE

The whole piece is literally thrilling, with the audience being swept up in these rapid and joyful back-and-forths. With light humor, Emanuel Gat plays with repetition, pauses, or noise, ultimately creating an image of the group and its interactions—or of humanity, offering an optimistic vision, since everything ends in embraces... The whole piece is luminous and elegant, without any pretension, fleeting like summer.

The only thing left to do is to have a good time on Emanuel Gat’s Plage Romantique. [...] It’s very delicate, very new wave, perfectly interpreted in a burst of generosity as we listen to the lyrics of the song: « Je veux t’aimer à mon idée » ("I want to love you in my own way"). And that’s what the performance does.

The impact of the creation of Plage Romantique by Emanuel Gat was much anticipated. [...] Plage Romantique restores the true measure of Montpellier Danse: Emanuel Gat orchestrates the games of his sharp dancers around a live guitar phrase. In the air, there are screams, races, momentum, boldness, and complicity. Everything is new and playful, light as a party. And it’s irresistible.

Fortunately, I arrived in time to catch several shows, including three highlights of this edition: the premier of Gat’s Romantic Beach, arranged specifically for the inner courtyard of the medieval monastery that now houses the dance center Agora. His international group of 10 dancers managed to swarm in and out of complex formation with exceptional poetic flow and without losing their firefly speed and lightness.

Gat knows how to wonderfully pour his dancers on stage, like crests of waves that blending into one another. In this beach party the Israeli choreographer refines even further his use sound and voice, to create a chamber of echoes that reverberates on the quivering bodies. Run-ups, syncopation, ellipsis, full stops, Plage Romantique sets a choreographic temperature of extreme sensitivity.

Destabilizing, energetic, rigorous, but also exhilarating, [Emanuel Gat's] work, which aims to correlate vocal sounds and gestural initiatives, keeps us firmly on the edge of our seats for a full hour. It is impossible to disconnect, so strong is our curiosity. [...] Remarkably creative in its suggestiveness! [...] Let’s applaud the surprising performances of this small, friendly, and promising troupe

No matter which end we view it from, and I am convinced that few can question dance from this angle with such quality. Despite its organic complexity, it is as light, natural, and self-evident as a simple arithmetic equation. The dance seems to return to its roots, shedding all pretension, artificiality, and contrivance. [....] It’s a joy to watch.

Gat’s beach animations [...] impress not only with extraordinary dynamism but also with their intricate structure. It is almost impossible to follow the continuous regroupings of the ten dancers. [...] They flow so quickly from synchronized togetherness into contrapuntal opposition, soloing out of a multi-voiced body chorus.

The title sparked the most beautiful fantasies—so much so that Michael Loehr, one of the nine dancers, stepped up to the microphone at the very beginning and announced, “Just so you know: this won’t be romantic.” [...] Strange encounters, bizarre entanglements, and unexpected connections arise, creating moments of humor. [...] A grin-worthy finale—a charming way to close this year’s summer festival at Kampnagel.

The nine ensemble members [...] demonstrate with remarkable precision how group dynamics work among equals. Everyone is both an initiator and a participant, and the rules of the game are constantly shifting. Everything depends on energy, movement imagination, and, of course, how cool and amusing the rest of the group finds a given impulse. [...] The sold-out theater responded with enthusiastic applause for this unusual and highly topical production.

The ten dancers offer us something ephemeral that goes hand in hand with the ineffable. Everything slips between our fingers, between our eyes, in an elusive manner. [...] It is a dance full of nonchalance, elegance, sinuosity, and fluidity. [...] Everything feels spontaneous, unexpected, yet natural: the gesture, stripped of spectacle, making the freshness of the movements evident.