Stepping Through the Looking Glass? The Aesthetics and Politics of Daniel Larrieu's Mobile ou le Miroir du Château Anna Pakes

RESUMEN: This article proposes an analysis of a single dance work -Daniel Larrieu's Mobile ou le Miroir du Château [Mobile of the Château's Mirror] (1995)- in the effort to engage with issues of his time. As explained in more detail below, Larrieu has been a prominent player on the scene of la nouvelle danse française since he first began to choreograph work for the public sphere in the early 1980s. His career has followed a trajectory similar to that of other institutionally successful French contemporary choreographers: having run an independent company (Astrakan) for a decade, he was appointed to the directorship of a major institution, the Centre Chorégraphique National de Tours (CCNT), in December 1993. Mobile was the first evening-length new work he created as CCNT director, performed for a local public in June 1995 in the gardens of the Musée des Beaux Arts in Tours and toured nationally to such venues as the Théâtre de Chartres, Les Gémeaux de Sceaux and the Théâtre de la Ville. The work, like productions by other prominent contemporary choreographers, was expected to resonate at both the regional and national levels, appealing to the local Touraine public as well as the national critical forum and audience for contemporary dance. An analysis of Mobile reveals a complex negotiation of various, sometimes conflicting, political and aesthetic imperatives. As the conclusion will argue, the work's process of production and reception -in responding to the conditions and dynamics of the French contemporary danceworld- presents an interesting case study which is more generally revealing of those conditions and dynamics.