Welcome to the Scotsman Sessions, a series of short video performances from artists all around the country introduced by our critics. This week, dancer and choreographer Constant Vigier performs his latest project BIG/small – The Dancing Mosaic, a multimedia piece which ‘brings dance, music and video together’

There’s something fascinating about seeing the inner workings of a show, the bits we take for granted but without which the main event would be diminished. In a theatre, we’re usually only privy to the performative aspect of a piece, but in this Scotsman Session from dancer and choreographer Constant Vigier, everything is in view.

Sitting at a desk, well-lit and dressed in bright colours, Vigier is clearly at the centre of things. As the camera zooms in, he plucks something from the top draw, piquing our curiosity. Who is this man, what is he doing and why is he surrounded by light boxes of differing sizes? Vigier’s purposeful drawing only adds to his mystique but we soon find our attention drawn elsewhere. Projected images made in real time appear on the light boxes, and if we were actually in the space our eyes would be darting across the room, constantly reassessing where to look.

Here, however, the camera decides for us and we find ourselves watching a close-up of dials being twisted, as music plays and the lighting is adjusted. It’s a sign of things to come, with Vigier’s hands quickly becoming the stars of the show. A long satin glove is drawn tantalisingly across the desk and Vigier’s playfulness takes flight. His movement style is as fluid and compelling, just as it was on stage during his nine-year stint as a dancer with Scottish Ballet – an experience which he says “pushed me to widen my horizons.”

BIG/small – The Dancing Mosaic is the latest in a wide range of projects Vigier has choreographed since leaving the company. Co-created with video artist Mettje Hunneman and sound artist and saxophonist Sonia Killmann, this is a work-in-progress with big aspirations.

“The ultimate goal is to create a show that brings dance, music and video together,” Vigier explains. “A concert offering visual effects that cover the whole space, with projections made up of videos recorded and performed live in front of the audience on stage. It plays with the idea of ‘real vs digital’, and makes it a show that will be different every time.”

While digital imagery and visual trickery play a large part in this entertaining short film, we never lose sight of the human beings at the centre of it. Whether it’s Vigier dancing with his fingers, Killmann playing the saxophone or Hunneman building layers of projections, it’s a case of many hands make fine work.

“I find hands fascinating,” says Vigier. “They are very articulate and expressive, becoming a creature of their own and offering so many possibilities to choreograph sequences.

“Practically, isolating a smaller part of the body made it possible to have a contained set-up that gave a very clean background to record on and really workshop the ‘real vs digital’ idea. It also made sense to spend the first part of the piece on them to slowly grow into a bigger movement and involve the full body.”

The Scotsman Sessions #429: Constant Vigier