From bow to foil, the virtuosity of the Chevalier de Saint-George

At the Met Gala, New York's grand fashion gala, eccentricity is the norm. So when Miles Chamley Watson, the 2013 world foil champion, showed up sword in hand, wearing orange tailcoats and bell-bottoms, no one was offended. On May 6, to his half a million Instagram followers, the American revealed his source of inspiration: "I decided to honor Chevalier." Understanding the Chevalier de Saint-George. Born in Guadeloupe in 1739 or 1745, and died in Paris in 1799, he excelled simultaneously as a fencer, musician, and soldier.

Last year, it was these skills, in all their multitude, that were celebrated in the show Saint-George en mouvement(s): Chevalier virtuose , at the Carreau du Temple, in Paris. There was a crowd in the stands – at least a thousand spectators. And on stage, where fencers, dancers, and musicians converged. "Saint-George embodies our values with panache: respect, courage, surpassing oneself," summarizes fencing master Olivier Bonin, who participated in the show with his students. To compose the choreography, Johana Malédon revolved around a few key ideas. "The tension between the group and the individual, the duel, the idea of a man on his guard, ready to pounce," lists the woman who took fencing lessons in her youth in Guyana. Of the Chevalier, she admires "the will to exist in a space, the nobility of the 18th ^century , which did not welcome him with open arms."

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