Biennale de la Danse de Lyon.

BIENNALE DE LA DANSE DE LYON SEPTEMBER 12-OCTOBER 3, 2004 VARIOUS VENUES, LYON, FRANCE 

When Swiss dancer Foofwa d'Imobilite donned his flashy yellow-and-red costume and dashed through Lyon's sprawling Pare de la Tete d'Or, innocent bystanders were stunned and amazed. With his blue tail, horn, and jingle bells, d'Imobilite's jubilatory improvisation, Kilometrix.dancerun.4, part of his ongoing "danceruns" series, took him on a physically demanding dance-capade through the bushes, trees, and flowerbeds of this lush park. The spectacle attracted an eager and enthusiastic crowd who, on foot, skates, or bicycles, followed in the unpredictable footsteps of this jogging, tireless dancer.

The enthusiasin d'Imobilite (who has danced with Merce Cunningham) encountered in the park typified the welcome this southern city provides to the eagerly awaited Biennale de la Danse. From the vast nightly selection of soon-to-be-sold-out shows to jampacked free outdoor classes in city squares, public seminars, and the wildly popular mid-town parade (which requires a full year of preparation), this year's Biennale was three weeks of foot-stomping, city-wide fun.

Titled "Europa," the festival was a smorgasbord of dance harvested from the fields of Europe. The nearly 700 dancers from 40 companies across the continent frequently invoked themes of identity, roots, and belonging, reflecting the changing world Europeans now inhabit as they move toward greater continental unity.

Among the artists featured from the 21 European countries present were France's Blanca Li, known for her personal blend of urban dance, flamenco, and circus movement, and the Lyon Opera Ballet, each of whom presented new works; Belgium's Jan Fabre, a cutting-edge artist whose works include choreography, sculpture, and photography (a selection of the latter was on view at the Lyon Museum of Contemporary Art); and Italy's Aterballeto, one of the country's foremost contemporary ballet companies. The festival also served as a showcase for smaller, independent works and was an ideal opportunity to discover bright and emerging talents.

Festival director Guy Darmet chose, for the first time, to kick off this, his 11th Biennale, with a break-dance extravaganza, "Dei'hip hop," as a tribute to the street art that has taken Europe by storm. Featuring performances by two of France's most popular break-dance groups, Paris' Wanted Posse and Lyon's Pockemon, the show featured onstage battles among eight carefully selected young companies, as well as sounds, vocals, and a freestyle finale.

Midway through the festival, Hungan,'s Honved Ensemble (a personal favorite of Pina Bausch) brought its folklore extravaganza to the Maison de la Dame. Artier three hours of fast-paced Gypsy rhythms and shuffling feet, the capacity crowd was on its feet begging for more.

Among some of the young talents to emerge was France's Delphine Gaud, founder of the company La Trisande, who performed all emotionally charged solo in the intimate basement theater of the Lyon Opera House. Dancing under an aluminum roof pierced with plump intravenous bags, Gaud punctuated Tiamat with frenetic explosions of energy. The IV bags served as a reminder of the lifeline on which she delicately balanced. Throughout the 30-minute work, her staccato movements seemed to evoke her struggle to catch her ever-fleeting balance. The skill and emotion Gaud revealed as she embarked on this interior journey convinced crowds that IV bottles would likely be unnecessary to ensure her a brilliant future.

Denmark's Kitt Johnson took a similar journey into self in Mirror. A former athlete, Johnson has translated her movements on the field into dance, giving her performances an unusual edge. She appeared onstage under a voluminous hooded cape, her silhouette distinctively carved out under a sharp sliver of light. The optical illusions created by the cape intensified Johnson's keen sense of space and body, and she demonstrated a fluid dexterity with her seemingly unhinged fingers and legs. Passing from darkness to light, her journey brought spectators through a winding and distorting hall of mirrors.

That hall of mirrors was an appropriate metaphor for this festival, whose participants often found themselves reassessing their new sense of self as Europeans: reflecting on their past, looking forward to an era of brotherhood in a European Union that now counts 25 member states. From traditional folklore to modern-day technology the festival provided spectators with a rare display of dance that broke cultural boundaries and enriched international bonds.

FOR MORE INFORMATION: www.biennale-de-lyon.org