The Safe Word is an acro-choreographic reflection on the idea of revolt. From the private sphere to the social and political field, The Safe Word addresses the question of individual and collective freedoms, in particular those - very current - which concern life on the internet. Nourished by discussions between historians and psycho-sociologists **, this cruelly funny piece ventures into philosophical grounds.

​

At the front of the stage, a fence is installed; it materializes an obstacle. Through micro-fictions of varying duration, five characters come to question this obstacle transformed into a circus apparatus. We are particularly interested in hierarchical functioning and links of subordination, in order to decipher the mechanisms of power, manipulation, subordination and transgression.

​

How do we exist under duress, confronted with hindrance? When do we say “stop”?

​

The friction of materials (body, music, video, texts, etc.) gives rise to playful and jubilant situations, which nevertheless leave room for confusion.

​

* With humor, The Safe Word borrows its title from the sadomasochistic world.

A "safe word" is a code agreed between partners to signify - in a rather poetic way after all - the end of the game.

A little as if there were several states of consciousness, as if the threshold of suffering, the threshold of acceptance, could go back and forth, but one day, one point, one moment, the tipping point occurs.

​

** Sophie Wahnich (historian at CNRS), Olivier Codou (researcher in psychosociology at the University of Rouen), Jérémy Zimmermann (Founder of La Quadrature du Net)