Taous Bertrand: Nymph

Performance as part of ImPulsTanz – Vienna International Dance Festival

The nymph Echo used to be a storyteller: Zeus ordered her to tell tales to his wife Hera as a distraction, buying the father of the gods time to pursue his extramarital affairs. When Hera saw through this scheme, her anger was directed at the nymph: she punished Echo by depriving her of her own language. Thus, Echo was forced to dully repeat the words of the beautiful Narcissus, instead of expressing her love for him in her own way. Grief-stricken, she shriveled into a selfless voice. In Taous Bertrand’s graceful solo, the performer-choreographer restores the nymph’s ability to tell her own story: not in words, but with her body. A danced self-empowerment and self-creation, in which Bertrand – who also studied literature and philosophy – interprets Echo’s myth as a transfeminine experience.