Voyages aux indes galantes
To work with Bartabas, you need all seven senses.
The second day into creating, an assistant called me on the phone saying Bartabas wanted ashes to fall on the torso of one of the dancers, a Radjasthani fire-eater. After a brief moment of panic, I thought: Clay, but what color? In my home in Bagnolet I had a beautiful book on the Zingaro shows, and consulting it, I came across ‘Chimère’, and I saw a handsome horseman in beautiful white shadow make -up. So I said to myself: » Yes, clay is right and the color will be white! » Backstage no one believed in my idea and I can still hear the costume designer’s « Beware! You won’t change Martex ! » Eh? What does that mean?
Off I went to meet Bartabas in the Amphitheater specially erected in the Versaille gardens to receive 30 000 spectators, and there he was with a slidesheet in his hand showing me one of the pictures on it. It was the picture of the handsome white horseman I had chosen that morning in the book…