CCN DE TOURS – THOMAS LEBRUN

In southern Mexico, in the Oaxaca region, they are known as Muxes. Born male and yet female, neither transgender nor transvestite, they are raised as girls and can dress as such. At local festivals, they wear the traditional Zapotec outfit, a long shimmering skirt woven with floral patterns and flowers poked through their hair. The choreographer Thomas Lebrun set off last year to meet this third gender, recognised but for which sexuality is strictly governed, and marriage unthinkable. In his exploration of masculine femininity, a notion so difficult to grasp that there is no precise term for it, he compares their society with those of most countries of the world. There is violence and discrimination against “feminine men”, even when they have won the right to marry each other. His choreographic documentary oscillates from realism to dreamlike, questioning the identity and representations of the body “under the flowers”. With the help of a Mexican anthropologist, five performers, including a singing actor, all aware of their inner femininity, embark on a quest of perpetual transformation. Meanwhile, the soundtrack combines local music with a delightfully non-gendered score: Berlioz’s Le Spectre de la rose.

Thomas Lebrun

After founding his company Illico in 2000, he first served as an artist associated with Vivat d’Armentières (2002-2004) and then with Danse à Lille/CDC (2005-2011), where he created Itinéraire d’un danseur grassouillet in 2009. Since his appointment in 2012 to the direction of the Tours National Choreographic Centre, he has choreographed around fifteen creations, with precise dance and unapologetic theatricality. In 2021, he celebrated his company’s 20th birthday with an anniversary piece, Mille et une danse (for 2021).