All matter is vibration and subject to change. An endless amount of possible forms arise and collapse from this incessant flux, conducted by an urgent need to exist and transmit.

The Gyre is a duet evolving from one basic action: walking. Gravitating around one shared central point, walking accelerates into a whirling, fathoming the mechanics of a relationship. Persistence and steady transformation unfold into a rigorous, yet fragile complementary score. Fugacious shapes emerge along the orbiting trajectory and coalesce with the subtle design of light and sound. In every instant of a turn, the two performers drift in and out of another, the distinct lines and contours of the bodies blur delicately into one.

Evolving along a continuous and permanent flow of motion, The Gyre is gradually dragging the spectator into a slight state of hypnosis. The choreography keeps on turning incessantly around a defined center, like orbiting planets, and generates various points of optical perspectives. Time, only present in the rhythmical score of their feet, is slowly vanishing in the same curve of oscillation as the bodies are caught in, and surrenders to the continuity.

The Gyre premiered on 18 November 2018 in Winterthur (CH). The production has enjoyed considerable success in Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, the Netherlands, Norway, Iran, Morocco, Jordan…

The Gyre won the Distribution Award at La Grande Scène 2018 (Arles) with support from the French network Les Petites Scènes Ouvertes during the season 2019/20, and the Partner Award 2019 from the International Duet Competition RIDCC in Rotterdam, with support from Dansateliers Rotterdam.

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The Gyre - A creation by Tumbleweed (24’ / 40’, 2018)

Concept and performance: Angela Rabaglio, Micaël Florentz
Light design: Arnaud Gerniers, Benjamin van Thiel
Music (original composition): Daniel Perez Hajdu
External eye: Dagmar Dachauer
Administration: Camille Collard
Communication and distribution: Quentin Legrand (Rue Branly)
Production: Tumbleweed
Coproduction: Dansomètre / Oriental-Vevey (CH), Garage29 (BE), Wolubilis (BE)
Residencies / supports: Charleroi danse (BE), De Warande (BE), Destelheide (BE), Carthago (BE), Dance Atelier Reykjavik (IS), MMF Slaturhusid (IS), The Freezer (IS), Dampfzentrale Bern (CH), Lo Studio (CH), CCN Roubaix (FR)
With the support of Fédération Wallonie – Bruxelles, Wallonie-Bruxelles International, in coproduction with Les Petites Scènes Ouvertes and the help of ADAMI / SACD

Angela Rabaglio & Micaël Florentz - Tumbleweed are Associated Artists at Charleroi danse – Wallonia-Brussels Choreographic Centre (2026–2029).

Photo © Flurin Bertschinger, Bart Carlier

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[ Review ] "Forty minutes of hypnotic beauty. (…) Neither monotonous nor linear, the choreography and sound creation take us, together, into a sensation of vertigo. (…)
The Gyre is a thousand miles from a display of muscles or force; it is an intuition rather than a declaration, of great finesse of gesture and performance."
Marie Godfrin-Guidicelli, Ouvertauxpublics.fr, 18.1.23

[ Review ] "[Angela Rabaglio and Micaël Florentz] deliver an incredible performance with rare precision. (...) The choreographic duo is magnified by beautiful lights, a march in unison for an infinite journey in life."
Paula Gomes, Theatreactu.com, 17.02.23

[ Review ] "A fascinating pas de deux whose exhilaration is renewed until the end."
Rosita Boisseau, 06.05.22

[ Interview ] "During the first years that followed our meeting, we had the chance to travel a lot. In particular, we went to Iceland to explore the wild landscapes and unmarked paths. It is from this journey that most of the foundations of The Gyre come: the transience of forms, the continuous transformation of landscapes, the interdependence in walking."
Tumbleweed in conversation with Wilson Le Personnic, Ma Culture, 20.09.21

[ Review ] "Angela Rabaglio and Micaël Florentz [ ] perform a tireless rotation with two bodies, very close to each other and (seemingly) stretched towards infinity: a haunting and obsessive mute incantation, in chiaroscuro, whose oscillations are very well highlighted by light and music."
Jérôme Provençal, Les Inrockuptibles, 10.03.20

[ Review ] "Variation around the action of walking, this piece moves you by the excellence of the dancers caught in an almost continuous movement. (...) First creation of Tumbleweed company - name given in the United States to these flying bushes - this choreography all of gravitation will not leave anyone indifferent."
Philippe Noisette, Sceneweb.fr, 06.03.20

[ Review ] "Going beyond the simple frame of choreography, the highly structured and very precise grammar of the duo invites you to dream, to get out of the frame and dive into your thoughts. A few variations in their gestures awaken our curiosities, before sinking again into another dimension of this inner self."
Olivier Frégaville, L’Oeil d’Olivier, 05.03.20

[ Review ] "A masterpiece, worth the first Keersmaeker pieces, both in its radicality and rigor and in the mastery of its execution. The two dancers, on a music reminiscent of Steve Reich's Drumming, draw, in a quasi-perpetual movement, each his own circle, imbricated in that of the other. Micaël Florentz and Angela Rabaglio gently orchestrate a meditative and intoxicating trance set like music paper, a journey that tells us about the couple, how to be one when we are two, always in unison, it is at the same time minimalist, of a dangerous beauty so much one looks for the misstep (which will never come), and a saving optimism as for the romantic relation."
Thomas Adam-Garnung in Ballroom, 05.03.19

[ Review ] "One is bound by the consequence of simplicity and almost automatically begin to adapt one's own breathing to the rhythm of the dance. Hands touch hands, touch shoulders, touch heads, and finally draw circles so large that the entire movement seems like a never-ending succession of court bends, which in turn brings wits into the game. The feeling of happiness in the stomach and the smile on the face overcome one automatically."
PS Zeitung, Zurich, 16.11.18