A few days before their first appearance in Cyprus, Claire Théault and Anthony Figueiredo, known internationally as Claire & Antho, take us inside the artistic world they have built together. Their work brings dance together with theatre, mime, physical theatre, shadow play and live video.
Théault is a dancer, choreographer and actor with a background in hip-hop, and has worked with French and international artists. Figueiredo, known as Antho, is a dancer, director and actor with a particular love of physical theatre, comedy and cinematic storytelling. Together, they turn movement, image and expression into a distinctive form of storytelling, creating shows that combine dance with the power of images and narrative.
They will perform their show ‘Souvenirs’ at the Mitsikouri Performing Arts Festival for Children and Young People, which this year has joined forces with the Nicosia International Festival.
For audiences discovering you for the first time, how would you introduce Claire & Antho?
We’re dancers and actors, and we like to say we’re storytellers. Beyond the visual side, our priority is to tell stories and convey emotions. We try not to fill the stage with too much technology or too much scenery, and to come back to things that are simple and essential.
You come from different artistic backgrounds, and your work combines dance, theatre, physical performance, shadows and live video. How did this shared artistic language come about?
Claire is a dancer at heart and I come from theatre, so combining the two comes down to conveying story and emotion through movement. That way we don’t fall into choreography that is merely decorative.
You work very closely together, both creatively and personally. What is your collaboration like behind the scenes?
We’re very happy and lucky to share our passion and our relationship on stage and off it. It’s very precious to us, and we protect it.
How does an idea usually take shape between you, and how do you handle moments when you see a scene or a character differently?
One of us will have an idea, and the other is generally always willing to listen, then tries to take the idea as high and as far as it can go. It’s all about sharing, exchanging and listening.
What does live video let you express that the body or the stage cannot on their own? And how important is surprise in your creative process?
We both love cinema, silent film as well as contemporary film, and it’s true that there is something in cinema that can’t be done on stage. In theatre, even if the actor isn’t speaking to us, we know they’re there. In cinema, the viewer really has to step into the world of the image and of the director. An image is captured only once, and you can feel that. It’s fleeting. Camera angles also let us get close to a character, into their private world.
In our work, whether through the body, shadow or image, our aim is to surprise the audience with things that look simple but are in fact very complex. What we have to bring out is the emotion, not the technology, and not an attempt to impress.
‘Souvenirs’ explores memory, relationships and the things we carry with us throughout our lives. What made you want to explore these ideas in a show?
We often think we have to tackle serious subjects to make a film or a show. But everyday life, family, love, time passing, losing someone: these are things we live through in silence, because they’re not an illness or anything serious. We carry them every day and act as if everything is fine. So the people we’ve spent time with, or met along the way, inspired this show.
What do you think children and adults see differently when they watch the same story?
Everyone understands and interprets things differently depending on their age. Adults already read things differently from one another, but with children there’s something more. An adult often tends to try to interpret and make sense of what they’re seeing, while a child simply lets themselves be carried along by it.
In the end, an adult is less objective than a child when watching a show, because they’ll try to compare. They’ll tell themselves they didn’t understand it, or that it could have been better, or could have been done one way or another. A child respects the work as it is.
When the audience leaves the theatre, what is the one feeling, image or thought you would most like them to take with them?
When people leave the theatre, we like them to stay inside our story and think about their own lives, the weight they carry, their families, the person they love and the time that’s passing. With this show, we try to make simple, almost invisible things precious.
INFO: Claire & Antho perform ‘Souvenirs’ as part of the Nicosia International Festival and Mitsikouri on Saturday, 17 October, at 7pm at the Nicosia Municipal Theatre. Tickets: more.com
