BLACK‘N'BLUES is inspired by the 19e century minstrel show and blackface traditions in the United States - the farce of Whites made up as Blacks imitating Blacks aping Whites.

The minstrel show may be perceived of as an infinite inversion and reversal of the signs of identity and power. The staging of opposing and contradictory characters - white-black, man-woman, master-slave - questions with lightness and panache the notions of race, class and gender. It prefigures many forms of 20th century American entertainment : vaudeville, burlesque, slapstick, stand up comedy, even rap.

Our work is drawn from the collective memory of popular imagery - to a great extent buried and more often than not burlesque - and the intimate lives of the performers. If some of these elements can shock, it is not a question to attenuate these aspects, but to expose them to the public in the theater, a space of exhibition, to create a dialogue and a reflexion.

BLACK‘N'BLUES plays with the specific elements and mechanisms of the minstrel show: blackface, masks, cross-dressing, song-and-dance, parades, dance and oral battles. With the same light and playful spirit we cover current events, and stage the present. In a scenery of painted backdrops and wooden palissades evoking 19e century popular theater, the performers dance, sing and play a contemporary minstrel show that, through parody, liberates the critical forces that laughter provokes.

Source: Mark Tompkins

More information: www.idamarktompkins.com

Mark Tompkins is an American dancer, choreographer and teacher living in France since 1973. After a series of solos and group collaborations, he founds his company, I.D.A. in 1983. Over the years, Tompkins' unique way of fabricating unidentified performance objects has become his signature. Solos, group pieces and concerts that mix dance, music, voice, text and video are steps of this journey initiated in the 70's, and continued with the complicity of set and costume designer Jean-Louis Badet since 1988. His passion for improvisation and Real time composition leads him to collaborate with many dancers, musicians, video makers and light designers. Renowned for his teaching, he travels extensively around the world. Winner of the International Choreography Contest in Bagnolet in 1984. He has created works nearly every year since then.

Source : Mark Tompkins’s website

More information :

http://www.idamarktompkins.com/