Diavolo’s First Visit

Jacques Heim, Artistic Director of Diavolo, and Garrett Wolf, Diavolo company member, visited St. Paul from Monday, February to Wednesday, February for the first visit of the Campus Connections Diavolo Project.

The visit began bright and early with Jacques and Garrett visiting the St. Thomas engineering class Monday morning. Jacques introduced the aesthetic of Diavolo and showed some video of their work. He talked through the project with the students, explaining their essential role in the process – each of the 40 students will propose a design for a set piece for the project. The chosen design will be constructed and serve as the inspiration for a dance piece with St. Thomas and Macalester dancers, choreographed by Jacques, Garrett, and other Diavolo company members.
Jacques emphasized that he does not use the word “student”, but instead treats everyone as a professional. He explained what he, as an Artistic Director, looks for in a professional design and gave examples of set pieces that have worked well for his company and others that have been challenging.

Tuesday evening marked the first meeting with the Macalester and St. Thomas dancers. Jacques and Garrett led the group through a typical Diavolo workshop, emphasizing the importance of trust within their company. They worked on lifts and partner choreography, and students were given homework to develop before the second visit.

Jacques and Garrett returned to St. Thomas Wednesday morning to lead the engineering students in a movement workshop. The purpose of the workshop was to engage the students in movement and encourage them to think outside the box when designing a set piece for the project. They took part in group lifts and choreographed movement around basic folding chairs, which emphasized the importance of moving on an object.

Jacques and Garrett teaching the engineering students the

Diavolo "Superman Fly" during the movement workshop.

Our first taste of Diavolo

“We’ll buy the kneepads, you bring the sneakers.” Kneepads and sneakers?! This sentence, sent in an email by our faculty advisor, was my first glimmer of how intense working with Diavolo would be. After weeks of planning, we finally got to experience Diavolo firsthand on Sunday, February 21.
Our four hour workshop began with situps, pushups, and running laps—quite a workout! Then, before the Diavolo aesthetic, we were introduced to the Diavolo attitude. Jacques Heim, the company’s artistic director, led us in a series of attitude-building exercises, the first of which was a name game. All twenty dancers stood in a circle, and one by one, we turned to the person next to us and said our names, as sharply, directly, and confidently as possible. Jacques had no use for hesitation or giggling; we all learned quickly to step up to the plate and deliver.
We then worked on trust exercises to help us grow as a team. With the cast running around the room, one person would shout “me!” and begin to fall backwards—and everyone else would rush to catch them and set them back on their feet. We also took turns, one by one, running towards the rest of the group and leaping into their waiting arms, being lifted up and turned around, mosh-pit style. We were taking leaps of faith, literally!
When Garret finally taught us a combination, I think we were all a little shocked. He demonstrated stunning acrobatic feats, expecting us to follow suit. We performed our best handstands, elbow cartwheels, and squatting-backflipp-y things, catching our breath in between his shouts of “go!” and realizing how much work we had in store for us!
We finally got into pairs and practiced several partnering stunts, climbing, jumping, and flipping over our partners. It was really fun to discover moves I didn’t even know were possible. It was so invigorating that my roommate and I went home and showed off for other friends, somersaulting around our living room!
All in all, we had a fantastic first visit that pumped us up for the rehearsals to come.