Les Sirènes — Philippe Saire

Following Cartographies — a series of ten choreographies created across urban sites in Lausanne and filmed by Swiss directors — choreographer Philippe Saire begins a new cycle of site-specific performances and short films inspired by Homer’s Odyssey. Les Sirènes marks the first episode of this series.

Set aboard a gravel barge moored at Ouchy on the shores of Lake Geneva, the piece unfolds in the metal basin normally used to transport stone. Within this unexpected space, three dancers move through water and steel, their bodies navigating the rigid geometry of the structure and the shifting reflections of the lake.

These short creations place choreography in unfamiliar environments, confronting movement with architecture, landscape and material. The result is both cinematic and immediate — a way of opening contemporary dance to a wider audience while revealing hidden or overlooked places.

While the piece was being filmed, I had the rare opportunity to move freely around the set, following the dancers from multiple perspectives. Rather than observing from a fixed seat, the camera could travel with the movement — sometimes above, sometimes at water level, sometimes within the structure itself.

The images gathered here explore that proximity: fragments of gestures, suspended moments and shifting viewpoints that echo the physical intensity of the choreography.