My Body of Coming Forth by Day – Dublin Dance Festival – Review
by Frank L

My Body of Coming Forth by Day – by Olivier Dubois

Dance Europe magazine hailed Olivier Dubois as one of the twenty-five best dancers in the world, but time passes and increasing years create tough challenges for a dancer. Dubois is now in his 50s and faces that challenge head-on. He loves to dance. He loves to perform. He loves to connect with an audience. However, he also enjoys the pleasures of life and his body carries the tell-tale signs of a life lived to the full. But he has kept the underlying superstructure in fine fettle. His agility astounds. His joie de vivre is infectious. He has a lot of living still to do and a lot of dancing.

When the theatre opens he is at the door dressed in a black suit with a white shirt. He is an ebullient figure and enters into banter in his fluent English spoken with an enchanting French accent. He persuades several somewhat reluctant audience members to sit on chairs which are at either side of the stage. There are cushions in front of the chairs which he would like, I suspect, to be occupied. On the night I was there it was just the chairs that were occupied plus two cushions. This process is all taking place before the show begins while he opens a bottle of non-alcohol fizz to share with lucky audience members. You know the show has technically begun when he makes a coup de theatre of reading the notice about where the fire exits are. In fact, you have been greatly entertained already for over ten minutes. His audience is starting to relax.

He then asks three members of the audience to come on stage and he gives two of them an envelope. In one envelope is the name of a ballet piece he danced more than fifteen years ago and in the other a piece of music. He then dances an excerpt from the ballet and when that is complete he asks the third member which piece of his clothing he should remove. He removes the piece demanded. The process is repeated several times. The audience becomes increasingly engaged by his magnetic personality and his still remarkable dancing skills. When he is left with little clothing he comes to a finale where he is encased in a vast fur coat. He lets himself go in a frenetic dance in a great pool of light.

He is having a ball but he wants the audience to have fun too and he attracts almost all of the audience onto the stage to indulge in his passion for dance. For Olivier Dubois to dance is the very essence of his existence. He harnesses his natural gregariousness and his immense dancing skills to create an uplifting, extraordinary experience. It should not work but it does so brilliantly. Olivier Dubois uses his magnetic personality and dancing skills to create this memorable happening.