Construction cranes dance in the sky of Bobigny in Seine-Saint-Denis

"It's Boboche (nickname of Bobigny, editor's note), you can only see that here," smiles Thomas, a resident who came to watch the show like many families.

Under the eyes of the public, ten cranes emancipated themselves from their repetitive tasks to indulge in an unusual achievement in the raking light of the evening.

Between the town hall and the prefecture, in the middle of the HLM, they officiate on the construction site of the city center of Bobigny, instead of a dilapidated shopping center, which since the 1970s monopolized the heart of this popular city in the Parisian suburbs. .

With the crane operators, "we did rehearsals on the ground, and we said + quarter turn to the right +, + wait for the top +, they each have a plan with their choreography", indications by walkie-talkie and visual cues in the urban landscape, explains choreographer Kitsou Dubois, known for her work in weightlessness.

"We are not used to these machines, which move very slowly, there is a great disparity in the speed of the cranes. We simulated the cranes in 3D so that we could then write the music", continues Alexandre Bouvier, composer which mixed both the childish sounds of a music box and Vivaldi's famous psalm "Nisi Dominus".

By 2023, a brand new district must come out of the ground, with housing, shops, green spaces and even a cinema.

A small urban revolution for the approximately 50.000 Balbynians of this town marked by concrete cities, built on slabs.

The communist city, which carried this show with the promoter Cogedim, wants the construction site not to be solely synonymous with "noise, rubble. We make sure to reverse things a little, to raise our eyes and look towards the future", encourages Claire Dupoizat, deputy mayor in charge of culture.