The origins of the project
Creating magic moments
The IMAGINARIUM was born like a self-evidence…The idea of creating a live show came to us naturally when we discovered a video showing wonderful avant-garde styled costumes.
Indeed, a live show has a different impact than photos or videos. It puts artists and spectators closely together in a common imaginary world. The immersion is total and creates a veritable journey that creates unique experiences and brings unsuspected emotions into light..
The Free Spirit is composed of numerous artists and we let ourselves be guided by our desires and talent. The creation of a live show with costumes and dancing was eating away at us and became more and more self-evident.
“A wonderful world…”
This idea was quickly concretized in a real project thanks to the infinite energy and the limitless volunteering of our members.
The idea being there, a question quickly came to our minds: where to start?
We are lucky to have by our sides a formidable costumes designer, Fraise au Loup, whose talent doesn’t need to be demonstrated anymore.
We also have a talented make-up team of professionals including:
- Laura Galoyer, first in class
- Mickaele Poirier, winner of a world body painting competition
- Sophie Gayler, about to be professor
All three of them graduated from the prestigious Makeup Forever school.
By their sides, Jelly, Melissa, Kiraaha and other artists who offer us their talent and unlimited creativity.
However, when speaking about a live show, we are also talking about dancers!
Initially, we did not have such talents in our Free Spirit community, but our numerous projects and collaborations allowed us to create a strong team of dancers coming from different universes.
All of them master different techniques and have their unique styles but one thing is for sure: they are a perfect match for our universe. July, Marc Angel and others joined our ranks this way and contribute to making our project rich and complete.
Finally, photographers, video makers, community managers and composers joined the project.
It is now a team of over 100 people that we managed to bring together.
At this stage, we thought that we will only perform for one single date. At least, this was what was first planned before a crazy idea came to our minds:
What if the EMAJINARIUM also performs in Japan?
In January 2016, we publicly announced our new project.
Above all, our desire was to make a magic show of 1h45.
To do that, the place needed to contribute to the creation of that magic. A beautiful place, in our image, full of history…
After some research among sumptuous famous places in Paris, our choices were the Royal Palace Theatre, and the Madeleine Theatre.
Palais Royal theatre in Paris
The Royal Palace was our first choice, but its limitations were quickly revealed: the place was too small.
In fact, our project that was initially planned for 30-35 artists finally became a journey composed of almost 130 artists, all volunteering and coming from different backgrounds. All of them are driven by the same ambition, the same dream: to share.
To share their talents and their experiences, to share a common adventure but most importantly, to share a beautiful story that they were about to create.
The passion was formidable. Beyond all our expectations. The passion of a beautiful story that is created from scratch.
The EMAJINARIUM – A journey to the dreamlands”…the story has been written within 10 days only
However, it will take far more than a hundred to bring it to life.
In September 2016, the project truly began.
First of all, with the dancers who started the repetitions. Several hours per week, from pure choreographic creation to interpretation and expressing emotions.
The show does not include a choreographer, which was our choice because our philosophy is to create in community and share our ideas. Each member of the EMAJINARIUM is a source of proposals and builds several scenes.
We wish the show to be in our image; that it reflects what is the deepest of our souls. And the result is here: powerful energy coming from the whole group. This energy moves us, shines and irradiates us all.
Apart from being an artistic project, the EMAJINARIUM is a fantastic human adventure, which surpasses borders (our artists come from all around the world: two of the illustrators are from Australia and Spain, three of our photographers come from Denmark, Germany and Canada…).
We wish to combine our energies. This is what we think to be the most beautiful thing. Bringing together, in a single and unique project, professionals and amateur artists with different backgrounds, experiences and origins.
The show is composed of 20 chapters. We decided that there would not be any dialogue, as we wish the interactions between characters and public to be led by physical expression and emotion externalization.
This exercise is complicated but necessary to allow the connection between public and artists. We would like our public to feel things, to live the experience and feel transported to the imaginary world.
We are not in a perpetual search for perfection, but we answer to our need to create together and share it.
Lastly, beyond our personal ambitions, we are all implicated in a humanitarian cause. Like all Free Spirit projects, our show aims at supporting an association that takes care of orphans suffering from AIDS in Africa.
