Do you Believe in Gravity? Do you Trust the Pilot?

Presentation

After three group performances created together with the other members of the dance company Zoo, Thomas Hauert has now decided to return to the solo format, in order to explore new territories. In his latest piece he mixes dance with texts and songs. Hauert already used singing in Pop-up Songbook, a previous performance, but in that case it served to study the physical implications of singing, the connection between movement and the voice. This time particular attention goes to the ballads' texts, written by Hauert himself. The solo has been chosen as a useful format for experimentation, but there are also other justifications for its use here, as the performance explores the connections between the individual and the world at large. The starting point is the circle, an enlarged dot, a circular entity which could represent the individual's conscience. If a human being confines himself to the level of this conscience, however, he soon starts to go round in circles. There is no other solution than to leave the area and to launch out, either inwards – into the self – or outwards. Do You Believe in Gravity? Do You Trust the Pilot? is about that movement, the search for the self, communication and existential questions. It is about love, the fundamental part the others play in establishing our personal world view, the indispensable trust we have to put in them and our ensuing vulnerability. Hauert soon leaves the emotional level to explore the metaphysical domain: beyond scientific assumptions and clear-cut, binary logic the choreographer investigates concepts such as chance, intuition, creativity and volition. Actually, while developing these philosophical notions reminiscent of fuzzy logic, Hauert carries on, but at a different level, the investigation that led him to improvisation: how to bring about the unexpected, the unthinkable, that which can't be conceptualised? In return the dance feeds upon a new understanding of its areas of meaning and of what's at stake. Hauert steps out of the infinite number of possible walks of life to stand alone in front of the audience, sincere, generous and vulnerable. From his retreat, a red round rug, he invades the stage and gets into communication with Simon Siegmann's bright scenography and Bart Aga's electronic music, symbiotically developed with the text and movement, to present the audience with a fleeting glimpse through his private window on the world.

Denis Laurent

SONGS
1)
There's a place
That's small enough
To hold in your arms,
But big from where I stand,
It looks back at me
In all the things I see.

You can get so close,
And yet it will always be
Too far for anyone but me
To ever be close enough
To see and feel
What's not completely hidden.

So it can be quite lonely here,
And often I would like
My friends to know what's going on
Inside that part of me,
To which
Nobody else can have a key
If I should disappear
Before I find a way to let you in,
Know that I tried to tell the truth
-most of the time

But being true
And seeming true
And wanting something to be true
Are look-alikes that fool me still
Against my best intentions

How ever I explain
Whatever we exchange
There'll always be the mystery
Of what it feels like to be me

Thomas Hauert

2)
Komm, wir springen raus
Und tauchen in die Weite,
Die sich öffnet
Zwischen allem, was uns hält.
Dort, wo alles entsteht,
Wo sich alles bewegt
Und sich alles verändert.

Es braucht Mut,
Denn es kann gefährlich werden.
Aber denk daran,
Dass du selber immer
Bei dir und lebendig bist.

Wenn du los lässt
Und in die Tiefe schaust
Und nichts mehr dem festen Boden gleicht,
Dann siehst du,
Was die Welt wirklich ist

Thomas Hauert

2) (english translation)
Come on, let's jump
and dive into the world
that's opening up
amidst everything that keeps us back.
Over there, where everything originates,
where everything moves
and where everything changes.

It requires courage
as it can be dangerous.
But remember
that you're always
yourself and alive.

When you let go
and look into the abyss
and no longer seem to find a firm footing,
then you see
what the world's really like.

3)
Je vous ai fait confiance
Quand vous m'avez, très sincèrement,
Dévoilé le monde
Mais petit à petit
J'ai réalisé
Que mon arrivée
Ne vous a pas dispensé
De vivre une vie
Aussi tourmentée que celle de n'importe qui
Le monde est devenu différent
A travers mes yeux
Mais j'ai pu, pour un moment
L'apercevoir par les vôtres

Je te fais confiance.
Toi, généreuse et bienveillante.
Avant même que je ne le devine,
A mes côtés,
De notre enfance,
Des souvenirs en partage, /nous partageons des souvenirs
Qui nous font rire encore/qui encore nous font rire

Et quelques autres bagages
Qui pèsent plus lourds,
Qui blessent toujours,
Quel que soit l'âge.

Je vous fais confiance.
Et vous me donnez des raisons de croire
Que votre histoire
N'est pas un mirage,
En entrant dans la vie des autres,
Les expériences se multiplient,
Et si parfois je me méfie,
C'est que j'ai vu,
Des deux côtés,
La confiance trahie,
Les certitudes brisées.

Je te fais confiance.
Tu me permets si honnêtement
De découvrir ton âme,
De me rapprocher.
Ensemble on sait créer
Le plus doux présent qui soit.
Voulant croire en ton innocence,
Et en la mienne retrouvée,
Je me laisse aller à la dépendance
Pour t'aimer, je prends le risque de tomber.

Thomas Hauert

3) (english translation)
I trusted you
when, straightforwardly,
you revealed the world to me,
but I realised
by and by
that my arrival
didn't exempt you
from leading a life
as tormented as anyone else's.
The world became different
through my eyes,
but just for a moment
I was able to see it through yours.

I trust you.
You, who are generous and kindly.
Before I could even guess so
you were already at my side.
We share
childhood memories
that still make us laugh


and a few other pieces of luggage
that are heavier to carry,
that go on hurting us
despite our age.

I trust you.
And you give me reasons to believe
that your story
is not an illusion.
When entering another one's world
our experiences multiply.
If I'm sometimes suspicious,
it's because I've seen
– from both sides –
that trust is abused
and that certitude vanishes.

I trust you.
You allow me, with such sincerity,
to discover your soul,
to come close to you.
Together we can create
the sweetest possible present.
Believing in your innocence,
and in mine, which I have recovered,
I abandon myself to dependence.
To love you, I accept the risk of falling.