Long Ma, charmer and titanic dragon, arrives in Toulouse for a big street show
A journey on the back of a dragon, anyone? Patience. For now, Long Ma is getting a makeover in the whirlwind of mechanical creatures in the Halle de la Machine. The dragon mare arrived from China, where she made her first appearance in 2014, ten days ago for a “major maintenance operation”. “We completely dismantled it to check its sensors, change the filters, deactivate its controls and even make certain optimizations”, explains François Delarozière, the creator of this titanic creature 12 meters long and 5 meters high.
Long Ma is therefore undergoing an overhaul in Toulouse, but her heart – in fact a half-diesel, half-electric hybrid engine that car dealerships will envy – is already beating hard enough for her to put on a show. From Saturday, when the machinists who have just met her, get their hands dirty, she will wake up several times a day. For its doe eyes to open, all the luckiest visitors need to do is grab a gigantic feather and use it as a paintbrush to paint its muzzle again. The dragon mare will wake up slowly, shake off and then become more worrying. It will rear up and activate its nostrils, sometimes distilling a humid vapor in mist mode then a burning breath.
Battle of titans on the trail of giants
These poetic awakenings are only a leg up for the creature, a curtain lever for Toulouse residents and tourists. Because, before returning to the Middle Kingdom, Long Ma will have a fight to fight. His duel with the Giant Spider will last two days, April 16 and 17. It will allow Compagnie La Machine to reconnect with street opera after the release of the spectacular Minotaure in November 2018, which attracted 800,000 curious people and made people talk about it all over the world. This time, the exit of the giants will not be in the city center. But around the Halle, on the famous Piste des Géants, traced by the pioneers of the Aéropostale and become the main artery of the new district of Montaudran.
The show will be free for two days. And, of course, the Minotaur will take part in it. “If you book a trip on the back of a Minotaur that day, you will even be part of the show”, jokes François Delarozière. And Long Ma will take the seed. Her “travel temple” will be hoisted on her back and she will in turn serve as public transport. Until May 8. Then she will leave for new adventures.