Getting in touch about Chicos Mambo’s award-winning show TUTU which comes to London for the first time at the Peacock Theatre, after nearly a decade on tour and close to 600 performances, including successful runs at the Edinburgh Fringe. Created by Artistic Director of the company, Philippe Lafeuille, this family-friendly show features an all-male cast of six dancers adorned in ever-changing, flamboyant costumes. I was wondering if you’d be interested in running a Q&A with Philippe Lafeuille ahead of the show?
Edinburgh Fringe favourites Chicos Mambo will soon make their Sadler’s Wells debut with the award-winning TUTU. After almost 10 years on tour and around 600 performances, the show’s success isn’t in question. A family-friendly, gender norm-defying dance extravaganza, TUTU featured six male dancers and a barrage of wonderful costuming. From hip-hop Swan Lake to clumsy Dirty Dancing, this show is a surefire crowdpleaser.
So, what hopes does Chicos Mambo founder Philippe Lafeuille have for this next stop in the show’s legend? I put a few questions to him to find out!
Philippe, you’ve been at the helm of Chicos Mambo since 1994, and touring TUTU for 10 years – what have you learned about finding success in the performing world?
Over the years and with the success of TUTU, I have learned above all that you can’t rest on your laurels, you have to keep working to keep the show at a high level of quality. You have to maintain the spirit and the requirements of the show and not fall into the easy way out, maintain and remain faithful to the essence and meaning of the show, and this despite, for example, the changes in casts. With the success of TUTU, it has also given me great creative freedom, all these spectators who love my work, it’s a way of saying “we like what you do, keep going”. In fact, many spectators tell me after the show when I meet them “keep going”. It gives you wings to create.
Talking of those 10 years, what do you think has kept TUTU fresh and relevant to an ever-changing paying audience?
I am the first to be surprised by the success of TUTU, I often still ask myself “but what did I put in this show for it to last so long?”. At a time when everything changes very quickly, it is surprising that TUTU continues to seduce a wide audience. Perhaps TUTU offers universal themes beyond time and fashions, TUTU is a journey into the world of Dance but TUTU actually talks about life. I have often been asked if I have changed the show in 10 years, no, certainly not, you don’t change a winning formula. I also explain to my dancers that for TUTU to continue on its way, you must always dance as if it were the first time and never fall into the easy way out, always generous and demanding. This has always been my philosophy when I was a dancer, to give everything and dance as if it were the last time. On a visual level too, for TUTU to remain as fresh as the first day, you must maintain the quality of the costumes. All the costumes are made of tulle and tulle has this defect of fading after a certain time, so the costumes have to be remade.
How do you approach finding the right dancers for the company and show?
To find dancers, I do auditions and sometimes I spot dancers in shows. To be a TUTU man, you have to be an excellent dancer and also have other talents and especially a great generosity as a performer. I have to find dancers who have a great sense of humor and who are a bit of an actor, a bit of a clown, who are capable of manipulating objects, who are very expressive and who are not afraid of their feminine side because there is a lot of transformation in TUTU. To be a TUTU man you have to be polymorphic, like a cartoon. Many dancers have approached TUTU thinking it was easy but when it comes to working it is quite complicated and very demanding.
How big a part would you say the Edinburgh Fringe played in TUTU’s story?
The Edinburgh Fringe was an important event in the career of TUTU and the company, as was the Avignon Festival. We went there several times. The fringe is an inevitable platform at the international level, it gives visibility to your show at a higher level and towards countries that are sometimes difficult to reach. Participating in the Fringe is also a form of recognition, like being worthy and accepted in the great family of entertainment of the English-speaking culture. And when you do a comedy show it is a great recognition.
Are we still subverting gender norms, or has that become part of the mainstream performing industry these days?
I think there is still a lot of work to do to subvert gender norms. Today, the question of gender is often posed as a societal debate. When I created the company 30 years ago, the idea was not to question gender but to create a company of men who dance and who simply make dance laugh. For me, dance and art have always been ambiguous and when men dance there is always this part of femininity that appears because dance calls for strength as much as grace or fragility. And as for the transformism that appears in my shows, when my dancers play female characters, for me it is a classic of theater. For a very long time women have played men’s roles and vice versa, nothing very new. In England you have Pantomime. I often say that the Chicos Mambo are to dance what the Onnagata are to Kabuki, the classical Japanese theater.
I do not seek to enter the political arena with my shows, I offer joyful forms where the body and dance offer great freedom.
What are the next boundaries that you’re seeking to push?
The stage is for me a space of absolute freedom where everything is possible, but I do not seek to pursue a political agenda. Because I think that politics divides and with my shows I seek to bring people together. I also do not like provocation which can be violent. Humor on the other hand is a weapon of mass seduction which allows many things. With laughter we can also get a message across. When the audience laughs there is something of the order of letting go which happens, and which approaches well-being. I simply seek to do good and bring joy in a time which is very hard and everything is polarized.
How excited are you to come to Sadler’s Wells’ The Peacock Theatre? What does that mean to you and the company?
Very excited to come to London and at the Peacock Theatre and very proud to be in the programme of Sadlers Wells, a theatre that offers dance in all its forms and that welcomes the greatest companies. For me and the company, it is a great recognition and I hope that we will succeed in “tutufying” London. I also hope that the meeting with the London public will be magical and that it will allow new meetings and new projects and perhaps to return to London with another of my shows.
What part would you say London and Sadler’s Wells have played in your story as a creative professional?
London is for me one of the great places of entertainment, the place to be. I have often been to London to see shows, musicals etc and I have found an exceptional level of quality at all levels, technical as well as artistic. So I am sure that London has undoubtedly inspired me in my creative work. Moreover it is very inspiring to be in a city which has such a culture of entertainment, a city where shows are created which are then taken up all over the world. Sadler’s Wells is a beacon in the world of dance which offers Dance shows in all their diversity, which I defend in my artistic project: dance with a capital D.
I hope that our time at the Peacock Theater will play an important role in my career and will lead to many great things.
And finally, from one dancer to another, what does dance mean to you?
Dance is my whole life, it is the air I breathe. Since the age of fourteen when I saw a show by Maurice Béjart and I decided to become a dancer, I have never abandoned this path. I defend dance at all costs in all its forms, and not only through my creations, but also the Balls, the workshops, the educational projects that I defend and that I propose. I am a utopian who thinks that if everyone danced, the earth would turn much better. Through my creations I also try to approach an audience perhaps forgotten and who thinks that dance is not for them. Dance is an artistic expression that allows encounter, liberation and which is a form of freedom. We have become very cerebral animals and I find that we have forgotten the body and its possibilities. Everyone can dance and must dance. I subscribe to this phrase of Pina Bausch “let us dance otherwise we are cursed”…
Featured Image: Michel Cavalca
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