Danceviewtimes – writers on dance
By Tom Phillips
Subject: Benjamin de Bouillis de Foofwa d'Imobilite
at the
Baryshnikov Arts Center, New York
"[Foofwa d'Imobilité's] "Benjamin de Bouillis" uses dance the same way Joyce uses language – as material for a grand illusion, a tour de force of signs and symbols, pointing ultimately at itself, or nothing at all. It's brilliant.
(…)
As a performer he is a thrill to watch – elegantly turned-out in ballet moves, sure-footed in its off-center Cunningham variant, exact and expressive in the French style when he turns mime and clown. As a creator he unpacks Cunningham's cryptic zen psychology – specifically treating the human performer not as an embodiment of character, but an illusion to be tinkered with; an assemblage, not a unity. "Benjamin de Bouillis" does the same kind of deconstruction job on modern dance that "Finnegans Wake" did to the modern novel, and it may have the same effect. After reading Joyce's work, it's hard to go back to seeing fictional characters as anything more than bubbles composed of word-associations. After seeing Foofwa, it may be hard to believe in traditional modern dance as anything but a succession of empty postures."