From out of the shadows

When the sun next shines, take a look down at the companion by your feet. There he or she is, the loyal shadow who stays faithful all our lives while all around us the world changes. Maybe you shouldn't take your shadow for granted.

You won't if French choreographer-cum-visual magician Philippe Decouflé has his way. His latest creation, Sombrero, is a celebration of the penumbral world, a sun-kissed skip in and out of the clouds. It teases the imagination as it flits from fashion plate to movie set, glamour to comedy, playfully linking the idea of shadows and memories in the mind.

'It began with a very simple idea, a man and his shadow walking together,' says Decouflé. 'And it struck me that we all have our shadows that we are stuck with. I thought that here was a theme that was very simple but very deep also, to look at the effect a shadow has on the human condition.'

Simple ideas are not what Decouflé has been known for in recent times, his name more associated with phantasmagorical creations along the lines of 2005's Tricodex, which featured a bewilderingly imaginative parade of weird and wonderful creatures. Tricodex echoed Decouflé's seminal opening ceremony parade for the Albertville Winter Olympics in 1992, which started the trend for ever more elaborate spectaculars.

And though it's scarcely a straight dance show, Sombrero is evidence of Decouflé's move back to basics, giving his flair for choreography room to breathe amid the stunts. It also finds him back on stage as a performer, clad head-to-toe in black as a shadow echoing the moves of a 'real' dancer. It's an opportunity he's relishing, the dancer in him re-ignited by Solo, the show he performed in last year's Dance Umbrella.

'I realised that if I don't perform I begin to feel bad in my body. I become this kind of bad, bad person, too nervous, too hyperactive - too bad-tempered to be around!'

The benefits of performance as therapy are there for all to see in Sombrero, which mixes surreal humour - gird your loins for the appearance of a cheeky dancing penis - with a nostalgic melange of shadow finger puppetry, old movies and cheesy French pop. At times it feels like you could be flicking through someone's old holiday snaps.

There's even a whizz through the old Hawaii Five-O theme, complete with comedy water-skiing. It all makes for a relaxed, gently comic ambience that Decouflé attributes to working with a company of performers who date back to his dance roots.

'The Hawaii Five-O thing came from them, they wanted to put it in. I wanted to give them as much freedom as possible - Sombrero is a show of all our memories.'

Sombrero, Wednesday until Sun, Sadler's Wells, Rosebery Avenue EC1, Wed to Sat 7.30pm, Sun 5pm, £10 to £35. Tel: 0844 412 4300.
www.sadlerswells.com
Tube: Angel