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| Aiwan du théâtre Padida à Douchanbé. |
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| Rideau de scène du théâtre Padida. |
The Padida Theatre is close by the chaïkhana Rokhat and set back from it. Rokhat, it is a major landmark in Dushanbe. One of the central places on Rudaki Avenue, with its terraces open to the four winds, its white pillars and its coffered ceiling painted with traditional motives, it first greets the eye. Built in 1958 by Russian architects, it is a gift from the Soviets to the national style. But the kitchen is ordinary and the cooking chachlik smoke is unpleasant. At the end of an alley, a few steps, three yews, an ochre neo-classic frontispiece with a closed door surmounted by a epigraph where are drawn two antique theater masks and announcing "Padida Theatre" in Cyrillic. It is necessary to walk around the outer wall to find the stage door. I notice at once the great red tapshan with a carved wooden roof. There is nobody. The vacant stage is pathetic with its large torn curtain on which discolors an oriental landscape. On walls have been illustrated patterns where still appear the sickle and the hammer. Disposed semi circularly in front of the stage, the seats for spectators are weed-infested. Outside, a man who is guarding an unnecessary fence recommends me to come back later if I want to meet somebody. He laughs at me by pinching a fictitious tutu to drop a grotesque curtsy.
I come back in the afternoon and I meet Samarhon, star dancer. Tall young man, handsome like an Adonis. The tapshan in the back yard ?
- We settle down there for tea and to discuss during the breaks.
The main stage is still used for the classes and the training for the dancers.
- There are dance shows ?
He looks at me as if I had just said a nonsense. I insist :
- The tapshan, it is as a kind of pocket scene.
He ends up finding the idea amusing. He persuades the dance teacher to authorize some girls to go to dance and himself dresses up a stage costume with black tights and cape. The teacher opens the dancing room window and boosts the sound. Here we go for the tapshan dance !
I will attend a few days later in this theater a show given by a young French couple who are travelling with a truck. At each of their stopping places, they show their sight. Guillaume plays cello and Sarah says a text she had written. The writing is haunted, physical and poetic, supported by the cello. It is about a city rootless wandering, a series of portrayals emerging from a familiar environment. The story relates the issue of assigned social role versus freedom. An abstract perfomance, sometimes violent, characterised by the importance given to dissonance. The spectators applaud but I wonder if they are really inspired by the codes of a show which seems to me too much "euro-urban", far from the universal analogy so dear to Fourier. So what ? Is it not important that they can see here something different ? A manner which upsets the tradition and brings them to reflect on the various forms of artistic expression. It is through these encounters and to these culture shocks that the art reinvents itself.
I come back in the afternoon and I meet Samarhon, star dancer. Tall young man, handsome like an Adonis. The tapshan in the back yard ?
- We settle down there for tea and to discuss during the breaks.
The main stage is still used for the classes and the training for the dancers.
- There are dance shows ?
He looks at me as if I had just said a nonsense. I insist :
- The tapshan, it is as a kind of pocket scene.
He ends up finding the idea amusing. He persuades the dance teacher to authorize some girls to go to dance and himself dresses up a stage costume with black tights and cape. The teacher opens the dancing room window and boosts the sound. Here we go for the tapshan dance !
I will attend a few days later in this theater a show given by a young French couple who are travelling with a truck. At each of their stopping places, they show their sight. Guillaume plays cello and Sarah says a text she had written. The writing is haunted, physical and poetic, supported by the cello. It is about a city rootless wandering, a series of portrayals emerging from a familiar environment. The story relates the issue of assigned social role versus freedom. An abstract perfomance, sometimes violent, characterised by the importance given to dissonance. The spectators applaud but I wonder if they are really inspired by the codes of a show which seems to me too much "euro-urban", far from the universal analogy so dear to Fourier. So what ? Is it not important that they can see here something different ? A manner which upsets the tradition and brings them to reflect on the various forms of artistic expression. It is through these encounters and to these culture shocks that the art reinvents itself.
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| Théâtre Padida (derrière la chaïkhana Rokhat). (Septembre 2012, ainsi que les suivantes.) |
Tapshan dance with the pupils of the dance class and the star dancer Samarhon.
More photos Duchanbe
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