My sister-in-law has a wonderfully perverse sense of humor.

I have mentioned before that Clair de Lune by Claude Debussy always reminds me of my mother. She and I loved it and listened to it and discussed it endlessly. It was playing when she died, and dad and I played it on repeat for days after her funeral as we were going through her things and writing thank you notes to the people who came to her wake. Every time I hear it, I miss her terribly, but I also feel like mom is not so far away. Okay, so now you know my history with Clair de Lune. It has come to mean a great deal to me, and I probably take it a little too seriously (see my post from 2018 for an example).

Back to my sister-in-law. I should have known something was up when she sent me a link to the Instagram of French nouveau cirque acrobat Yoann Bourgeois, but I took her rare recommendation at face value. I bookmarked it, and made a mental note to check it out when I had time. Last night, after Beloved went to bed, I settled in to do a little blog research and remembered the French clown guy. I popped over to his YouTube channel, played the first video, Clair de Lune, and was forever changed.

Rather than describing the video, I thought I’d instead tell you how I reacted. I was initially a little taken aback. Then I was a bit offended (it is a sacred piece of music to me, after all). Then I started to giggle. And smile. And gasp. And giggle some more, all the while, crying my eyes out. I’m amazed Beloved didn’t come downstairs to see what had so unhinged me. The juxtaposition of that most-meaningful piece of music and the brilliant performance worthy of the likes of Keaton and Chaplin knocked me right off my center, but in a very good, very healing way. I like to think mom is somewhere laughing, too.

I look forward to hearing what you all thing of this elegant, profound, eminently French performer/choreographer. And if you’d like to see more of the mad genius’s work, he can be found on YouTube and Instagram. (And frankly, if my sister-in-law were on social media, I’d give you her info, too. She’s fantastic.)

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[ En chantier : “Ophélie” ] . . @____marielaura #yoannbourgeois #shakespeare #hamlet #water #apnea #aquarium #performance #circus #workinprogress #physics #chair #show #fish #dream

A post shared by Yoann Bourgeois (@yoann_bourgeois) on Dec 18, 2018 at 3:08am PST