Les Dauphins et les Licornes

Les Dauphins et les Licornes, the Latest Family-Friendly Creation by Maï(g)wenn et les Orteils, on Stage This Fall.

Like a journey to Utopia… that goes off the rails! On stage, a child, neurotypical dancers, and others from the neurodiverse community. They divide the world into two playful and ridiculously arbitrary categories: on one side the dolphins and on the other, the unicorns.

What follows is a kind of fascinating ritual, an attempt to create together, as a collective, a performance that is constantly disrupted by the frenetic search for the other’s gaze, for their approval. Sometimes, too, the performers indulge in the luxury of being authentically themselves: embracing their flaws, their fragility, turning their skin inside out like a glove to examine the seams and the loose threads. These frantic back-and-forths between the Self and the Other place the dancers in a precarious balance. And we, nestled in the shadows, are privileged witnesses to their beauty, their humanity, and their monstrosity.

In Les Dauphins et les Licornes, we once again find the choreographic signature of the company: contemporary dance, jig, uninhibited spoken word, performative theatricality—all languages necessary for the emergence of a true dramaturgy of diversity. With this new work, choreographer Maïgwenn Desbois lets herself be guided by her performers to stage a grand punk and kitsch ball, where rainbows are sometimes splattered with blood.

This show is always presented as a relaxed performance, aiming to enhance access to cultural spaces for neurodiverse individuals and/or people with sensory sensitivities, as well as parents with young children, by offering a comprehensive experience that takes their needs into account.