Blind actors in China

In 2011, shifts was invited to Beijing for a choreographic adventure with blind Chinese actors. The company Divine Comédie was staging Maurice Maeterlinck's La Princesse Maleine for the festival Croisements: a play full of sensations, of the seen and the unseen, where trees, light and changing weather carry the movements of the soul. Divine Comédie directed the text; Malgven Gerbes and David Brandstätter directed the movement. For six weeks, sighted, blind and visually impaired people of different generations worked together.

We worked through touch and through sound. Soon the idea came up that the actors themselves would create the soundscape of each scene – a forest, a distant place. By making the sound, they also heard where each of them stood, and could move freely on stage, knowing the limits of the space by listening to one another.

Above all, the work rested on trust. The actors could not see the performance; they had to trust that whatever they did was beautiful. Receiving that trust was deeply rewarding, and it carried the performance. One moment I will always remember: an older actress discovered, by herself, that she could stand with her legs more than a metre apart. She had never done this in her life, and burst out laughing. In that moment, she found a completely different image of her own body.

We also enjoyed the independence of the actors, especially the younger ones: one became our guide through the city, another our massage therapist. After the premiere, we heard, the piece toured through thirteen cities.