Sequins, leather and big sound: on the Agora stage in Montpellier, the decibels soared high above the old 17th century stones of this open-air theatre, a former Ursuline convent.

Ballet "Stereo" by Philippe Decouflé at the Montpellier Dance festival in Montpellier on June 16, 2022 Pascal GUYOT AFP

Between electric guitars, drums and electro music, the choreographer wanted "something that explodes on fire", without narration, built "like a rock concert", he explains to AFP during an interview before the world premiere of this show.

The Montpellier Danse festival (June 17 to July 3), more accustomed to dance of creation and reflection, has made a bet by programming at the opening this artist obsessed with entertaining the public.

After having "experienced quite badly" the periods of confinement and overcoming the loss of close friends, Philippe Decouflé, 60, sought to create "something vital" and went to draw on his adolescence bathed in rock.

It's a "period of life that strongly marked my creativity", reveals the one who has long dreamed of being a comic book designer.

Dancer of the Stereo ballet by Philippe Decouflé at the Montpellier Danse festival on June 16, 2022 Pascal GUYOT AFP

On stage, five dancer-acrobats and three musicians, including his daughter Louise Decouflé on bass guitar, interact constantly, against a backdrop of musical hits and compositions, in a playful setting and colorful costumes designed by Jean Rabasse and Philippe Guillotel.

These two old accomplices of Philippe Decouflé were already at the origin of the crazy universe of the opening and closing ceremonies of the Albertville Olympic Games in 1992 which had made the choreographer known to the general public and marked the irruption of the art in the sports world.

Three years earlier, Decouflé had participated alongside Jean-Paul Goude in the very festive commemorations during the bicentenary of the French Revolution.

"In my shows, I always put together a team made up of old and new", explains the choreographer.

Dance, circus, theatre, music?

The unclassifiable Philippe Decouflé combines the arts to "take and give pleasure" by having fun with clichés.

In "Stereo", he introduced a macho singer, "guitar-heroes" taking themselves for planetary stars, choristers playing the pitchers.

"The choreographies of the choristers are like those of the majorettes, that fascinates me", he says.

Philippe Decouflé on June 16, 2022 in Montpellier Pascal GUYOT AFP

Trained in circus arts, then in dance with American choreographers Alwin Nikolais and Merce Cunningham, Philippe Decouflé constantly leads his DCA company, founded in 1983, into a joyful and simple madness.

"Sensitive ears"?

Attention!

Central characters, the artists he chooses all have a charisma, a "mouth" like Christophe Salengro, actor and dancer who died in 2018, his thirty-year-old accomplice who had played in Contact, another play presented in Montpellier in 2015.

In "Stereo", Baptiste Allaert seems to take up the torch.

Disarmingly natural, this young actor embodies exuberant and absurd characters, like this hilarious DJ entangled in computer problems.

In 1984, Philippe Decouflé performed, during the same Montpellier Danse festival, his very first creation "Tranche de cake", under the eyes, in the audience, of Dominique Bagouet, a French choreographer who died in 1992 after having left an indelible mark on the world of the choregraphy.

"The day after the premiere, he wanted to meet me. He gave me encouragement that day which still resonates in my head", recalls Philippe Decouflé almost 40 years later.

This first date in Montpellier (until June 20) also marks the start of a tour scheduled until April 2023 across France.

But warns Philippe Decouflé, "if you have sensitive ears, take earplugs".

© 2022 AFP