Amalric gives the background in an interview that Philippe Azoury did for Libération: A train breaks down, and the whole troupe takes over a hotel, the streets, but they're ill at ease.
Three months ago, the peerless Savion Glover and his troupe took over the theater, the studios and rehearsal spaces for one week to work on his new show, now on tour.
(The Perm company was forced into constant touring when the Leningrad troupe took over its theater.) Its history is perhaps not quite so grand as trumpeted in a news release from the Tilles Center, which says it was founded in 1870 (true) by Sergei Diaghilev, the eventual founder of the first Ballets Russes -- a neat trick, since Diaghilev was born in 1872, albeit in Perm.
Their lineage extends to the Restoration, when acting troupes took over empty dining rooms above pubs to perform plays of lewd material that went well with a pint.
That may well be the message of "France Moves," a major festival of French contemporary dance that will spread some 10 experimental troupes over three boroughs in New York from April 24 to May 6. Final programs (including film screenings and panel discussions) still have to be worked out.
The early junior troupe also took over some Ailey residencies and outreach lecture-demonstrations.
The art shares space with the Theo Ubique Theatre Company (6970 North Glenwood Avenue; 773-347-1109; theoubique.org), a cabaret troupe that took over an old beatnik coffee shop.
The season includes several prominent New York actors and directors, in part a reflection of Ms. Gersten's years working at the Public Theater and the Naked Angels theater troupe before taking over the festival last fall.
Before you roll your eyes at news that the troupe is bringing over yet another "Rite of Spring," know that this interpretation features 14 dancers from Benin, Mali, Mozambique, Nigeria, Senegal and Togo, performing in a spare, open, white cube in a work inspired by Mr. Maalem's time in Lagos, Nigeria.
Its dancers in sea-blue and yellow catsuits are a spectral troupe, superimposed over one another and see-through like phantoms.
