Saturday, September 3, 2011

Review: Zon-Mai

By Merilyn Jackson

Zon-Mai. It means home in French slang – maison backwards, but (appropriately) it also sounds like my zone in reverse. Everything about this film installation is turned inside out and upended with 21 dancers from 10 countries allowing us a peek at their intimate domains.

Each is an emigrant from somewhere else, and choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui set dances on them in their current places, to perform in their bedrooms and bathrooms, under their tables, on their windowsills. Larbi and cameraman Gilles Delmas try to discover what home means when you have to set up far away from the home you knew.

The installation is shaped like a house made of screens, and the projections on it are like windows through which we can spy.

http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/phillystage/Review-Zon-Mai.html#ixzz1WyIJGvwm