The surrealist worlds of choreographer Léa Tirabasso are not immediately readable to the average audience member (that’s a polite way of saying: what on earth is going on here?!) but Tirabasso has decided she wants you to know what she’s on about. Queueing for her latest show, In the Bushes, we’re given a handout of an interview where the French choreographer cites her influences, from Guy Debord’s The Society of the Spectacle to Henry Gee’s The Accidental Species. It’s the idea of human exceptionalism that’s at the heart of her thinking: we’re just animals, she says. What makes us think we’re above the rest of our kingdom? And if you take away society’s manners and constraints, who are we then? What goes on in the bushes when nobody’s looking?
In truth, the appearance of the six dancers is less animal, more like a bunch of toddlers who’ve been let loose in the dressing up box, tottering about on tippy toes, squawking and cooing and twittering. They come across like Teletubbies (you might find this irritating, or hilarious). She paints us as simplistic beasts, sensory-seekers, rolling on the floor, rubbing against each other, doing what feels good. There’s naivety and lack of embarrassment about bodies – it brings to mind Emma Stone in the film Poor Things, especially later when things get a bit less naive with biting hands, slapping bottoms and giggly kisses.
