Our everyday life consists of routines that help us meet omnipresent demands. At the same time, they limit us, disregard alternatives, and obscure the view to a different and perhaps better world. It is a balancing act we perform each and every day. In ›Allege‹, the Berlin-based choreographer Clément Layes translates these routines into bodily restraints. Balancing a glass becomes an obstacle preventing self-imposed tasks, which at first appear meaningless, from being accomplished. Disturbed and amused, we follow the efforts of the man onstage trying to water a little plant. Yet despite all disconcertment, an inherent logic seems to exist in each of the innumerable attempts. Undeterred, he realizes his plans with acrobatic dexterity. What at first appears as an entertaining slapstick turns into a witty and profound exploration of the world before the eyes of the audience. In next to no time, Clément Layes dismantles traditional knowledge, rearranges meaning, and gives rise to a new world.
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