With De Diaboli, cho­reo­graph­er and visu­al artist Christine Armanger explores the fig­ure of the dev­il, from its his­tor­ic­al depth to its con­tem­por­ary stakes. Three per­formers (and a robot dog) indulge in an occult ritu­al that is in turns dis­turb­ing and grotesque.

In a thick mist, three hybrid creatures and a robot dog evolve in a super­nat­ur­al vis­ion, like a reviv­al of the dev­il­ish rev­els of the Middle Ages. Assum­ing that the dev­il (both his name and the sym­bol­ic real­ity he cov­ers) is more top­ic­al than ever, Christine Armanger draws on his­tory, the arts and theo­logy to draw out the myri­ad threads that link him to us, right up to the rise of new tech­no­lo­gies and Arti­fi­cial Intel­li­gence (summoned here via the robot dog and a voice-over). In an organ­ic writ­ing style in which body, voice, text and dance are intim­ately inter­twined, she explores a cho­reo­graph­ic vocab­u­lary linked to the round, the faran­dole, states of trance, jumps and leaps. She also draws on the play­ful rep­er­toire of 15^th-cen­tury diabler­ies, games and simu­lacra. At once human, witches, satyrs, fem­in­ine and mas­cu­line, the three whim­sic­al hybrid creatures tempt the dev­il by jug­gling sym­bols, ref­er­ences and registers. De Diaboli offers a night­mar­ish, oneir­ic plunge into a con­tem­por­ary ritu­al that smells of sul­fur and, by giv­ing sub­stance to our fevers, provides an out­let for them.