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On the first day of the 12th Cannes Dance Festival, the organisation of which has become biannual, we were treated to an evening of performances by the dance groups “Système Castafiore” of Marcia Barcellos and Karl Biscuit and the “White Oak Dance Project” of Michael Baryshnikov.

For those familiar with Hergé’s comic strip Tin-Tin, “Castafiore” is the name of his friend, a diva and opera singer, whose poor vocal abilities show her as a caricature rather than a goddess of song. Ironically, this fat Italian lady, can sing out of key only when Tin-Tin and his companions are present; everybody else seems to be completely enthralled by her singing. I have used this example as a crude expression of subjectivity, which is relative to the way in which Barcellos and Besquin (musician) treat their programme particularly in the “Almanach Bruitax”. The piece was choreographed as if based on the random thematic of a popular cultural magazine, whilst the imagery created the sense of flicking through the pages of such a publication. Everything, from the stage objects to the arbitrary connections between the spectators and the spoken words, was used to channel the audience to perceive-or even accept- a paradox or unorthodox. However, the work at the centre of that process, was gauche, kitsch and populist in its conception. “Système Castafiore” attempted to cast a humorous look at daily compromises which ended in a collage of behaviours and heterogeneous elements (fish, scales, numbers). The dancers who looked as if had come out of a comic strip (MTV, or the populist magazine) or walked out from the TV set or an operetta, were treated with sarcasm in front of a wall covered in fake fur. The illusion of taste, knowledge, information vis-à-vis the certainty of the banal, the cheap sentimentality and the “objectivity”.

If “Système Castafiore” was overlong, the programme of the “White Oak Dance Project” rather disappointed us. Michael Baryshnikov, an charismatic dancer, has for several years now become preoccupied with modern dance and thus has found an outlet to continue his career. In Cannes, he presented a programme consisting of Neil Greenberg’s MacGuffin or I how meanings get lost set to music from the film Psycho two works by the Australian choreographer Lucy Gerrain (Two Lies, Soft Centre) and one by Mark Morris. The latter was titled The Argument, and was the most interesting of all. The rest, appeared to be rather verbose compositions, exercises in sophistication and experimentation for first time dancers and choreographers. However, it was an unsuitable programme for someone with the stage presence and abilities (even at 50) of Michail Baryshnikov. We saw a dull and oft-repeated juxtaposition of male-female as well as the charming “Americanisms” of the last work. The “White Oak Dance Project” requires the services of a choreographer urgently, if it wants to offer more than just its trendy-sophisto characterisations (e.g. costumes by Santo Loquasto).