Although this year’s French cultural festival “la fête” has already come to an end, it had successfully left positive impressions on Bangkok audiences. From critically acclaimed films to photography, music, performing arts and gastronomy, Thais were offered the chance to experience "French-ness", which translates as contemporariness in many aspects.

And in this eclectic collection of events, two that well characterised French contemporary arts were interdisciplinary performances - the cirque nouveau (contemporary circus), "Peut-être" by Cie Ultimo Momento, and the modern ballet, "Rameau's Bossa Fataka" by Cie Montalvo-Hervieu.

In “Peut-être” at King Power Duty Free Complex's Aksra Theatre, a Chinese pole acrobat João Paulo P. Dos Santos and acid-jazz musician Guillaume Dutrieux played with space, mixing music of different styles and challenging the conventional concept of stage performance.

With only a pole in the dark stage and a lamp attached to it, Santos began his acrobatic act, climbing up the pole, whirling around and sliding up and down effortlessly as if gravity had no effect on him. His risky and dangerous-looking moves were accompanied by intriguing sounds produced by Dutrieux on his trumpet and glossy red-wheeled cello behind a synthesiser.

While Santos concentrated mainly on vertical actions, Dutrieux surprised the audience by emerging from the block of his music equipments in roller skates and moving about horizontally, transforming into a dancer and making contact with Santos who, later, played the saxophone. The performance space was explored even further when a video camera and a projection screen came into play, allowing the performers to "multiply" on-stage and blend real movements with virtual images, both live and pre-recorded.

Consisting of complexity and existing “in between” different states ranging from the respect of an artist’s role to a time frame and movement directions, the performance indeed transcended “certain” definitions and boundaries just as the English translation of its title, “Maybe,” subtly suggested.

At Thailand Cultural Centre's Main Hall, the curtain was stylishly brought down on the festival with "Rameau's Bossa Fataka". But a smaller venue, such as the Aksra Theatre, would have been a better choice for the show, which required more intimacy between the performers and the spectators. That would have also lowered its ticket prices as it was created for a wide group of audience, from the young to the old.