Press Coverage

Ustium

Madinin'art

" The story begins in a chiaroscuro revealing three static figures, moving quickly shifting through arabesques. Three similar yet different bodies, three separated yet joint bodies, three means two plus one outsider, a bystander, a divider. They all navigate the topic of duality, of impossible fusion, and of confinement into the binary. [...] The bodies confronting each other is a decoy, a replacement, a shell that conceals a quest for encounters, for a different way of existing in the world, for a stammering femininity within masculinity. This cartoonish femininity that can only exist through the codes enforced by society."

- Roland Sabra, Apr. 23rd, 2022

viàATV

During the International Dance Biennale, we bring to your sight a creation called "Ustium", a committed piece dealing with the struggle of the minds and with how can we accept our differences. 3 Antillean dancers from the "Compagnie La Mangrove" give life to those thoughts, through many different techniques and styles of dancing.

- Tom Gagnou, Apr. 22nd, 2022

" Hubert Petit-Phar fights clichés with Ustium :
The choreographic piece was named after a work by Jean-Paul Sartre Huis clos, « ustium » in Latin.
Danseur et chorégraphe, Hubert Petit-Phar (compagnie La Mangrove) a basé sa création sur l’analyse d’une œuvre de Jean-Paul Sartre développée dans Huis clos. A critique of the prejudices associated with masculinity and the black man.

Hubert Petit-Phar wanted to deal with different issues in this piece, notably masculinity and the prejudices surrounding the black man. « En partant de cet argumentaire de Jean-Paul Sartre, j’ai pu traiter de l’homophobie, du rejet et de la tolérance… », explique-t-il."

– Tafari Tirolien, 01 mars 2023

L'AMUSE-DANSE

Un trio pétri de sensibilité, de vérité et d’intensité pour incarner la force de la vie, les caractères, les différences entre chacun d’entre nous. La danse est limpide, le message clairvoyant.Trois personnages bien vivants, dansant et pertinents de musicalité.

– Geneviève Charras – le 19 juillet 2023

France Antilles

« Lors d’une nouvelle représentation de la pièce Ustium chorégraphiée par Hubert Petit-Phar, plus de 200 personnes se sont déplacées à la salle Sonis. Les spectateurs ont été saisis par l’engagement des trois danseurs, Ludovic Bibeyron, Mickaël Top et Driss IxX, et ont manifesté leur admiration à travers de riches applaudissements et une salle entièrement debout en fin de spectacle. A la sortie, on a pu entendre des phrases telles que « la perception de la souffrance de ne pouvoir parfois assumer qui on est était palpable », « la pièce engage une réflexion, on se pose des questions sur la vie dans la société, sur le chemin existentiel » (…).

– Stéphanie Tollet, 20 avril 2023

LA PROVENCE

La musique rythme le spectacle sauf lors d’une prise de parole très forte où des témoignages relatent la violence verbale et physique que subissent les homosexuels dans la société antillaise contemporaine où ils sont obligés de mener des vies secrètes.Symbole d’une vie bancale, la danse y est clopin-clopant soulignat le contraste entre les corps contraints et les corps libres. On a beaucoup aimé !

LA PROVENCE – Patrick Denis – le 19 juillet 2023

TETU

Pièce intense pour trois interprètes avec un fort prisme queer.

– Aurélien Martinez – le 9 juin 2023

OUTREMER LA PREMIERE

Hubert Petit-Phar a voulu évoquer frontalement la question de la masculinité et du queer aux Antilles et engendrer, soulever le débat. Avec parfois, il faut le dire, son lot d’intolérance, avoue le chorégraphe ; mais bien heureusement aussi beaucoup d’applaudissements chaleureux pour la façon dont le délicat sujet est abordé sur scène.

– Patrice Elie dit Cosaque – le 15 juillet 2023

Kreyol Karavan

RCI Guadeloupe

A travers leur projet artistique, les performeurs de La Mangrove tentent d’approcher et d’explorer ces cultures créolisées, les mémoires sensibles de territoires construits dans la violence et les chocs culturels engendrés par la colonisation, l’immigration ou encore la ségrégation. Un écosystème fragile où l’on peut se perdre et se libérer, un Tout-Monde glissantien où la résilience a aussi sa place. Pour faire passer le message, la troupe n’hésite pas à métisser les arts, mêlant poésie, chant, lecture, théâtre et danse.

– Katleen Bilas-Coppet, 15 juillet 2022

Breathless...

Maison pour la Danse de Québec

Pour son deuxième passage au Québec, la compagnie française La Mangrove, basée en Seine-Saint-Denis et en Guadeloupe, a profité d’une semaine de recherche et création à la Maison pour la danse, pour ficeler la création de son prochain spectacle intitulé Breathless....

– 9 janvier 2020

IO La gazette des festivals

"Reach the limits of your breath, that is precisely what it means to experiment beyond vital capacities, like leftovers that we should be looking for and aiming for. This remainder echoes with heroism… In order to create this show, the dancers must embody the idea of sacrifice, for a cause—a full commitment. Only then, we witness bodies struggling, as if the enemy was inside themselves, seeking beyond—beyond the battle, beyond exhaustion, those remainders who help us endlessly move mountains…"

Noémie Regnaut - July 24th, 2019

La terrasse

“In his minimalist and beautiful solo 'L’échappée', already performed a few years ago at the Chappelle du Verbe Incarné, Hubert Petit-Phar questions the relationship to roots with the literary work of Martinique’s author Edouard Glissant and Guadeloupe’s Maryse Condé. With “Breathless”, his brand new creation, he now summons the abolitionist Louis Delgrès and the Resistance fighter Jean Moulin. He explores the ultimate sacrifice that they bore in order to defend freedom and democracy."

Delphine Baffour - June 23rd, 2019

Paris Art

“Interchanging strains and reliefs, together, in duet, or as a solo… the show ‘Breathless’ arises, on the lookout for urgency—an essay about human behaviors in relation to complete commitment and death. To fight against slavery, facism, freedom, democracy… how far can we go for our beliefs, for injustice? Don’t we often consider heroes our soldiers? Maybe because their physical training has to do with controlling the body, resisting pain, exhaustion, fear. Dancers, athletes, and soldiers… don’t they all have this in common? However, as an art, dancing also brings to light intent, symbols, which drives to action. When to fight? Alone or together? Breathless dives into this distressing query to create a choreographic outline."

May 28th, 2019

Artistik Rezo

“Here lies the question of our humanity and its foundations.

Dreaming of being at the dawn of a nation, at the beginning of a path, defending Democracy by transmitting the story of their emancipatory visions to help rebuild critical thinking. How I go from despair to hope, letting myself be carried by this breeze, hoping for a new horizon.

The body, the voice, the breath… breathing, then nothing. Restrained bodies, free bodies, with the desire to entangle, confront choreographic languages in order for a freeing dancing to emerge, with the desire to push back the limits of gesture, creating urgency, strain, until the last breath.”

Vanessa Humphries - May 28th, 2019

Ré(z)oné

The artchemists

“How can you live off your land when it was ripped away from you? Ré(z)oné questions… This creation celebrates the resilience of a community that rose again—not without trauma, after one of the darkest chapters in Human History: the Atlantic Triangular Trade. The creation honors people, those who had to reinvent themselves, drawing from the best aspects of their culture. Through poetry, dance, music, this humanity portrayed by two dancers with flowing and airy gestures, swinging, then swaying, stands again. It is about political reach, it is surreptitious, and enough to nuance Ré(z)oné, giving it more than poetic purpose. It is a beautiful encounter, performed at the OFF Avignon and about to tour in France, Africa, and America.”

[Avignon off]

Dieter Loquen - July 24th, 2017

L'amuse-danse

Filiation

“Two men, brothers, father and son or comrades are sitting on their meager wood crate, rich—rich from their shared experiences, they converse, argue, reconcile; they dance generations, transfers, graceful bequeathing, collusion, and generosity. Two tall fellas, wearing white shirts or shirtless to pass the time and pass the space. A gifted dance, opened with gifted arms. Gazing one another, advancing into comprehension or adversity. Father or son, through communicative joy, casual dancing, flowing and airy, ready-to-taste, with delight and poetry of the gesture.”

G.Charras - July 12th, 2017

Toutelaculture.com

"Dance with a purpose, in order to find another way of binding identity and territory: that’s the beautiful and persuasive idea of Jean-Claude Bardu & Hubert Petit-Phar. We will remember the poetic presence of two dancers, subtle yet full of energy."

[Avignon off]

Camille Thermes - July 18th, 2017

France-Antilles

"We witnessed Jean-Claude Bardu and Hubert Petit-Phar, peaking, at the very culminating point of their artistry, opening for the Quinzaine." (Y.J.L.)

Yvor J. LAPINARD - May 6th, 2017

L'échappé(e)

Danser Canal Historique

"A runner’s bag on his shoulder, Hubert Petit-Phar dances. And he proves that it is possible. But that is not what matters to him. Urgency, meticulousness while articulating his arms, radiating and mysterious presence. Every gesture is of striking fluidity or harmoniously jolting. It’s feline, it’s clever. The love for words and the love for animals becomes one, placing art in life and life in art. Hubert Petit-Phar can take us far, as if the road to Antilles were through Wuppertal."

Thomas Hahn - July 26th, 2013

La terrasse

"Hubert Petit-Phar presents a minimalist and stretched solo, stemming from jazz and mixed influences. In this not-to-be-missed solo, he interacts with the writings of Edouard Glissant and Maryse Condé, in order to question this relationship to roots. A demanding and refined design, emphasizing the fundamentals of gesture in dance."

Marie Chavanieux, June 26th, 2013 – No. 211

Les Ailes d'I Ka

Le Figaroscope

"The choreographers Hubert Petit-Phar and Delphine Cammal bring us to their Mangrove trip a maze. The dancers advance with minimalism, yet carry us with endless delight in between dream and reality, white and black roots."

M.C, April 2013

Les Ailes d'I Ka(re)

La Nouvelle République

"The company transcends tradition, induces artistic encounters in order to produce, on stage, a high-intensity show… in this project, everything happens to reach a higher level of perfection, from one performance to the next, from one residency to the next."

Aurélien Chubilleau, July 10th, 2012.

Nuances #3

Le Figaro

“A moving and bewitching symbiosis between music and dancers.”

– Thierry Hilleriteau, April 2011

Notreinfo.com

“Nuances 3 is the encounter between Hubert Petit-Phar’s choreographic gesture and Jean-Luc Bernard’s live music alluring rhythm. It is synergistic… Music and body collapse and create a visual and sensory experience, in which the rhythm sets the tone while the body unveils meaning."

M. Provost, notreinfo.com, January 2010

Spinka

"During and after the performance, the imagination of the audience never sits still. On stage, the story travels and is carved in the audience’s mind."

– Moje Miasto, July 2009 (Poland)

Vois où je vis

Umoove

"Unadulterated, Hubert Petit-Phar dances his “See where I live”, with the sweet connivance with his dancer Delphine Cammal. The ubiquitous and enjoyable music keeps taking the audience further and further away from reality."

–Sandrine Mailhaud, May 2008

Created by Waly Cissé, Diane Boquillon & Stacy Marie-Luce