Flocking Art

August 3, 2014 9:43 AM

Strangely mesmerising geese herding on horseback to Mongolian throat singing. From French equestrian theatre impresario Bartabas, who staged a horse version of Rite of Spring (video starts at prettiest part). Follow up with sheep herding with horse and dog as terribly French art video.
posted by Erasmouse (5 comments total)

Mesmerizing, the three videos speak deeply to my soul. The first video reminds me how much I loved Cavalia, but is more spiritual and speaks to a part of my soul that usually remains dormant. The sheep herding video is mysterious and beautiful. The Rite of Spring - oh, what would I have given to see this live.
posted by seawallrunner at 10:34 AM on August 3, 2014 [2 favorites]

Fabulous. Thank you!
posted by misha at 10:51 AM on August 3, 2014 [1 favorite]

Wow. That horse version of the Rite of Spring is bonkers.
posted by azarbayejani at 11:23 AM on August 3, 2014 [2 favorites]

If ever Bartabas and his cohort are in your town, do not miss them. I've been to three of their shows - the first of which featured a number in which a white horse ambles to center ring on a wooden walkway, alone, in a spotlight, and then stands there doing nothing, or so it seemed, until you noticed that it was simply moving its ears this way and then that, for two minutes or so, all by itself, until it ambles backwards out of the ring and off stage - a kind of visual equestrian haiku; while the most recent was the linked Loungta, all Mongolian/Nepalese-themed, with an ethereal, shrouded ring, drone-chanting and wild devil figures. There's just fascinating energy & imagery in their equestrian theatre.
posted by progosk at 3:02 PM on August 3, 2014 [3 favorites]

I was lucky enough to see Bartabas' The Centaur and the Animal at Sadler's Wells. It was the most profoundly weird theatre experience-- really unsettling, because that's not a huge stage and when there's a horse standing there completely alone the whole audience holds it's breath; partly because it is so strange and beautiful and partly because we are all thinking, "Please don't freak out and jump into the orchestra pit." So a whole theatre sits and listens to a horse breathe. The contrast of the extreme self-consciousness of a middle-class London crowd and avant-guard theatre performers, and the extreme zen-emptiness of the horses was something to see.
posted by Erasmouse at 3:28 PM on August 3, 2014 [3 favorites]