This new choreographic interlude by Jordi Galí in the heart of Rennes is a six-storey structure that will slowly rise from the ground to a height of fifteen metres. The image of a large tree, with its foliage, branches and twigs, formed the basis of this moving suspension of time that seems to float in the air, without a trunk or roots. Each level, erected in successive cycles, is made up of three four-metre long struts, linked together by six dancers on the ground in a complex system of wires. The performance lasts for as long as it takes for this monumental structure to appear and disappear, in one breath of air (“anima” in Latin).

It is based on the architectural principle of tensegrity, where a structure stabilises itself through a discontinuous set of compression elements opposed and balanced by a continuous tensile force. It is a wonderful political metaphor for the way this united society is able to generate its own stability from contradicting forces. After ten years of silent performances, Jordi Galí has integrated the bagpipes of Erwan Keravec and Mickaël Cozien into this new production. In Rennes, the “biniou” bagpipe of Tangui Le Cras (who directed the documentary Je ne veux pas être paysan) will accompany Erwan Keravec, blowing a breath of Brittany into the construction of this impressive organism in movement.