Beste Cantate
La Drache
A performance at the interface of queer thinking and Ch'ti folklore.
March 2020. With covid looming large, the world goes into lockdown. Choreographer Juliette Chevalier has just returned from the popular Dunkirk Carnival. There is contrast, rupture, stupor. But also a momentum, as the crisis becomes the driving force behind her research into the power and resilience of the human body, the desire for dance and touch, or our ability to see intense colors in the depths of winter. The Dunkirk Festival is known to unite all walks of life. But is has also come under scrutiny for certain sexist and racist transgressions.
From the ruckus, Juliette Chevalier and her company La Drache emerge as a rowdy gang of merrymakers who use rigadoon dancing and Ch’ti folklore to escape the prevailing norms, reclaim their own dreamscapes and unite as one. With a headdress of flowers, the gender-neutral figure of Beste Cantate conjures a whimsical, multicolored group from her imagination, heading for a pagan queer festival.