Compagnie Dyptik’s Le Grand Bal at OZ Arts Nashville
Picture it: Strasbourg – 1518 – A Franco-German Renaissance Bonnaroo. Sort of.
The French dance company, Compagnie Dyptik, finds inspiration from tales of a historic dancing plague in their
production, Le Grand Bal. An appreciative Nashville audience caught this plague-inspired artistry on October 23 at OZ Arts Nashville – a performance that proved to be the company’s United States debut. The energy generated during the opening performance of this three-day residency was infectious and impossible to mitigate.
Hailing from Saint-Étienne, France, co-choreographers Souhail Marchiche and Mehdi Meghari present shows around the world, supported and approved by the City of Saint-Etienne, the Ministry of Culture and Communication (DRAC Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes), the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Region, and the Loire Department. With a foundation grounded in hip-hop, and a history of being dance-battle adversaries turned collaborators, Marchiche and Meghari offer the following artistic statement about Le Grand Bal:
A choreographic fever spreads, immobility and isolation take hold of the bodies, and how do we get back into movement? Le Grand Bal embodies the singular artistic vision of choreographers Souhail Marchiche and Mehdi Meghari. This dance drama is once again the fruit of a creative bond between the choreographers and [eight] intense, radiant dancers. This is a thought on the emancipation of the body, a physical reaction to the consequences of confinement, and the multiple crises of modern life. Dance and music combine, and the choreography invites a rebellion of bodies that, to free themselves, have no other way out than to dance. This is a profound artistic experience that pushes the boundaries of dance and celebrates the power of movement.
Our historical protagonist, Frau Troffea, and her daughter Frauline Emma Götz, are cited as similarly being overcome by the power of dance in July 1518. Without provocation, Troffea allegedly began dancing in the streets uncontrollably, seemingly without cause or an ability to stop. Soon others joined, forming a battalion of an estimated four hundred participants at the peak of the hysteria. Some sources indicate that up to fifteen dancing villagers died a day, succumbing to exhaustion and injuries.
Ruling out astrological connections and fears of the supernatural, physicians centered the probable cause of this dancing plague to be hot blood – an imbalance of one’s humors that allow one’s blood to overheat and damage the brain, in turn, causing madness. The epidemic continued. This initial diagnosis gave way to the belief that Strasbourg was being punished for allowing gambling and prostitution. Right on cue, gambling, prostitution, dancing, and most music were banned in hopes of ending the affliction. Still, the epidemic ensued. Energies next focused on Saint Vitus for his presumed ability to heel trembling limbs. By divine intervention, or chance, the dancing outbreak began to curtail and the pain and agony experienced by participants subsided.
Modern diagnoses regularly focus on mass hysteria as the genesis for this plague. Strasbourg suffered many hardships during this time, including several famines, increased living expenses, and a rise in smallpox and leprosy. Such intense hardships can compromise one’s mental health and invite superstitions to take hold, especially among like company.
OZ, Nashville – 2025 – A Remarkable Performance
There was nothing superstitious about Compagnie Dyptik’s La Grand Bal; quite the opposite, in fact. Intense undulating pulses held the audience in a hypnotic captivation from the opening step to the final company bow. The production began with breaking the fourth wall, staging, what was believed to be, two performers in the audience. All would soon find out that six performers were actually stationed throughout the crowd, while two members of the company began the performance on stage. This blocking foreshadowed the dense content to come during the next sixty minutes, while also signaling the use of proximity that would become a feature of the work that created both an intimacy and an invasion of patrons’ physical space. It was impossible to absorb everything in one viewing; action took place from all directions. Those viewing likely felt overcome by the amount of content perhaps in a similar way in which each character was trying to represent their battle with mental and physical infirmities.
La Grand Bal seemed to be organized into four tableaux, with each scene after the first eliding that which came before. Lighting design by Richard Grata and François-Xavier Gallet-Lemaitrehe particularly highlighted the fourth scene with the use of red lights and strobe features signaling the performers’ soon demise. This minimal palate was also adopted through the costumes conceived by Hannah Daugreilh and Sandra Bersot. Dance performers adorned a color scheme of black and white, realized through the use of various textures, fits, and styles, slightly juxtaposed by one performer wearing a dull, light pink negligee-inspired dress – perhaps the production’s patient zero, an homage to Frau Troffea.
In addition to the eight performers, a ninth character was presented through the musical creation of Patrick De Oliveira and sound manager, Sylvain Gras. The production’s soundtrack proved so successful that a few audience members screamed on occasion, becoming engrossed with the effective use of surround sound and dynamics. Elongated, patient crescendos of the music perfectly depicted the energy exerted by every dancer in several scenes, while other moments tickled the imagination with sonorities like that of ASMR (Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response).
Marchiche and Meghari created choreography that, at times, was very much rooted in French ballet and folk traditions. It was from these antique genres that influences pulled from hip-hop and breakdancing created a blended dialogue across centuries. Particularly effective was the use of recurring dance combinations on multiple occasions that, when layered with the music, proved to be a creative way of recycling emotions and communicating a sense of comfort, albeit through a macabre lens. The production ended with all eight dancers collapsed on the floor, victims of their own artistry.
The United States tour of Le Grand Bal is made possible by support from Villa Albertine, the French Institute for Culture, and the Society for the Collection and Distribution of the Rights of Performing Artists. Much credit goes to OZ Arts Nashville for keeping company with The Joyce Theater in New York City to bring this thought-provoking creation to our region – the only two tour stops in the country. One may not always know exactly what one will experience at OZ Arts, but one is certainly guaranteed to be moved and have plenty to discuss after the final curtain. OZ Arts leads Nashville in a push to give a more layered identity to our city and its people. The programming and the spaces curated by OZ Arts are of exceptional value, equally challenging and moving, and should be experienced by all regularly.
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Hawkins has facilitated performances on the podium as a conductor, in ensembles as a trumpet player, in lecture-based courses as an instructor, and administratively as a certified nonprofit professional.
