Jan Fabre - Troubleyn

At the 2005 Avignon Festival, the French press bestowed their blessing on Jan Fabre's dance solo 'Preparatio Mortis', which was performed in a former church. Meanwhile, Fabre has developed this short fifteen-minute study of transformation and utopia into a full-length performance. In 'Preparatio Mortis' it is life, not death, that plays a central role: 'Death forces us to take on a fuller, more intense view of life - I constantly strive for a post-mortem stage of life'. Fabre links the sublime beauty of the body with ultimate mortality. In 'Preparatio Mortis' Lisa May appears to rise from the dead like a positive field of energy. Her tomb is a colourful quilt of a thousand flowers. The rhythm and vibrant breathing in her Dionysian dance are in perfect synergy with the breathing organ on which Bernard Foccroulle produces the sound of heavenly music.