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Ingrid Berger Myhre – Spelling Spectacle

December 17th – 18th, 2024 Kaaitheater, Brussels
December 21st, 2024 Theater Rotterdam, Rotterdam

65 minutes

A Game of Three Performers

© Tale Hendnes

With each move, they peek into the immediate future, attempting to avoid the pitfalls of individual whims and stringent collectivism. By being loyal to the game rules, they risk steering into walls, hopelessly going in circles, missing their marks. By being loyal to their individual ideas, they risk sabotaging the collective effort. This productive dilemma drives the work forward.

The goal is to build the piece in real-time. Everything becomes material, as movement trajectories are woven thanks to coincidence and careful considerations. And as the map is drawn, the mysteries unfold.

Every next frame is the result of a previous stepping stone. 

Each stone carries the baggage of the ones before. 

In con-sequence, they spell out both the obvious and the magical:

The next step, the next room, the next door- continuously leaving one space to make another appear.

Categories
Mediterranea

Rudolf Nureyev – The Nutcraker

December 18th, 2024 – January 12th, 2025 Teatro alla Scala, Milan
approx. 130 minutes (intermission included)

Christmas Classic in Milan

© Teatro alla Scala

The new Season opens with the reprise of a much loved Christmas classic that has enchanted La Scala since 1969: The Nutcracker, with Rudolf Nureyev’s choreography and the historic staging of Nicholas Georgiadis. From the children’s dances to the family’s Christmas celebrations, from the battle of the mice and toy soldiers to the brilliance of the snowflakes, the music and dance combine beautifully in the choreographic designs of the famous waltzes and pas de deux, rich of technique, rigour, lines and balance, which reveal the dramaturgical approach that Nureyev wanted to give at this ballet: between shadows and light, the journey of an adolescent girl, Clara’s dream.

Categories
Benelux France

Compagnie 111  / Aurélien Bory – invisibili

January 30th – 31st, 2025 Scène nationale d’Orléans, Orléans
February 18th – 19th, 2025 Montpellier Danse, Montpellier
April 2nd – 3rd, 2025 Les Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg, Luxembourg
70 minutes

Anthem to Life

© Rosellina Garbo

With his Compagnie 111, choreographer and director Aurélien Bory has carved a path as a visionary of spatial poetry and a virtuoso of stagecraft, receiving international acclaim for his mastery in blending diverse performance languages. His 2023 work invisibili is inspired by his encounter with the city of Palermo and The Triumph of Death, an anonymous fresco from the 15th century, in which death strikes everyone without distinction of class, rank, age, or gender. In Bory’s hands, the monumental mural becomes a mesmerising backdrop, wondrously integrated in a profound dialogue with the dancers on stage, where narratives of contemporary relevance, including the plight of migrants and the challenges of illness, take place. Far from being a macabre dance of death, invisibili offers a captivating anthem to life.

Categories
Archive

Michael Keegan-Dolan – MÁM

December 4th – 7th, 2024 Théâtre de la Ville, Paris
December 10th, 2024 Espace des Arts, Chalon-sur-Saône
December 14th, 2024 Festpielhaus, St. Pölten
December 17th – 18th, 2024 Théatre Senart Scéne Nationale, Melun
90 minutes

A Fresh Breeze from Ireland

© Teaċ Daṁsa

Bringing together the virtuoso, Irish traditional concertina player Cormac Begley, the European classical, contemporary collective, s t a r g a z e and twelve international dancers from the Teaċ Daṁsa company, MÁM is a meeting place between soloist and ensemble, classical and traditional, the local and universal.

Following the success of his acclaimed re-imagining of the world-famous ballet, Swan Lake/Loch na hEala (2016) Michael Keegan-Dolan and Teaċ Daṁsa have created another mythic yet timely production that acknowledges how life’s polarities can on occasion come together and find resolution.

Categories
Archive

Kyle Abraham – Dear Lord, Make Me Beautiful

December 3rd – 14th, 2024 Park Avenue Armory, New York
Duration: unknown

The Big Thing in NYC

© Giocarlo Valentine

MacArthur Fellow Kyle Abraham is one of the most sought after choreographers and dancers of our time, creating a unique and expressive style of dance that explores issues of identity, history, and geography. In addition to performing and developing new works for his company A.I.M by Kyle Abraham, the bold creator has been commissioned by a variety of dance companies including New York City Ballet, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Paul Taylor American Modern Dance, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, The Royal Ballet, and The National Ballet of Cuba. He has also choreographed for many of the leading dancers of our time, including Misty Copeland, Calvin Royal III, and Wendy Whelan. He unleashes his signature style—a unique blend of modern dance techniques ranging from ballet to hip hop—in the world premiere of a new evening-length work.

Featuring a large ensemble of dancers with whom he has collaborated from across the country, plus Abraham himself, this Armory commission includes an innovative visual design created by Cao Yuxi (JAMES) and an Armory-commissioned score composed and performed live by the critically acclaimed new music ensemble yMusic to explore the growing sensitivities of life and transition, and nature and humanity, in our chaotic world. The underlying choreography employs layers of counterpoint to find intimacy and evoke ideas of empathy and constant change, fueling an evocative new dance work that migrates through the fragility of time and an ever-changing ecology.

Categories
Archive

Andrea Zardi – GRNDR_date no one

November 29th, 2024 Bari International Gender festival, Bari
Duration: unknown

The World of Dating Apps

© Andrea Macchia

Welcome to an underground digital grid: the world of dating apps. A figure—a speed model—jumps from one profile to another, from one body to another, canceling the distance but continuously looking for a way out. Loneliness, sexual drive, alienation, or simple interaction: which instinct pushes you to choose the closest profile? 

GRNDR_Date no one investigates the dating app phenomenon. Apart from being addictive, the use of sex-dating apps affects our way of perceiving the other, their body and their presence, consequences that intertwine with the new human and social relation dynamics. The work is characterized by poses and mutations, in which the body changes, showing the most desirable piece. 

Through the screen, the subject is exposed and vulnerable: an anonymous figure shows the best parts of themselves. The identity is irrelevant when the body details are more important, and all that can be demanded is to reach an instant pleasure when all that one might want to sweeten the sense of loneliness is just a few steps away. 

Andrea Zardi is an Italian dancer, choreographer and researcher. He trained at Hamlyn Ballet School, Nuova Officina della Danza, Tanzfabrik, Eko Dance Project and National Dance Foundation and worked for national companies and theatres. He obtained a PhD in Performing Arts Disciplines at the University of Turin. In 2018, he founded the ZA DanceWorks company, with whom he deals with artistic planning and curatorship in Italy and Europe. Currently, he is a research associate at the University of Turin.

Categories
Benelux

Chunky Move – 4/4

November 15th – 16th, 2024 Les Halles de Schaerbeek, Brussels
November 22nd – 24th, 2024 Dansens Hus, Olso

December 3rd, 2024 PLT Theater, Heerlen
December 6th – 7th, 2024 Teatro Municipal do Porto, Porto
December 10th – 11th, 2024 Les Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg, Luxembourg
60 minutes

A Uniquely Australian Performance

© Gianna Rizzo

4/4 is Chunky Move’s blueprint for choreographic precision, physical endurance, minimalist design and rugged street aesthetics.

Eight dancers perform a stark symphony of mesmerising movement against the backdrop of minimalist design. As episode after episode builds upon the last, quartets and duets converge and diverge in ever more hypnotic configurations.

Described by audiences as meticulous, mesmerising and exhilarating, and collecting 5- and 4-star reviews and a Green Room award and nomination, 4/4 is a stunning and unrelenting display of Chunky Move Artistic Director Antony Hamilton’s distinctive choreographic language and methodology.

Categories
Archive

Harald Beharie – Batty Bwoy

November 16th – 17th, 2024 Bari International Gender festival, Bari
November 21st – 23rd, 2024 Sophiensæle, Berlin
December 6th – 7th, 2024 Kampnagel, Hamburg
75 minutes

A Captivating Solo

© Tale Hendnes

There are hints of dancehall dutty wine whirls, or sexy pelvis swaying. The movements are always ambivalent: they range between vulnerable, violent and ecstatic, yet become mechanical and ‘empty’ through numerous repetitions.

Jelena Mihelčić

Batty Bwoy is a solo performance in collaboration with Karoline Bakken Lund, Veronica Bruce, Jassem Hindi and Ring van Mobius.

Through a reappropriation of the Jamaican term “ Batty Bwoy” (litteraly, butt boy), slang for a queer person, the work twists and turns myths to invoke demonic sensitivities and charming cruelties, unfolding vulnerable possibilities in an interplay of consciousness and naivety. The horror and joy of Batty Bwoy, inherent to queer blackness, is unmasked. 

Scrutinizing the absurdity of a queer monstrosity, Batty Bwoy articulates the porosity of bodies and languages, their mouths swallowing and regurgitating the corporal fictions projected onto their skins.  

Batty Bwoy attacks and embraces sedimented narratives around the fear of the queer body as a perverse and deviant figure. The expression “Batty Bwoy” is used to evoke an ambivalent being that exists in the threshold of the precarious body, liberated power, joy and batty energy!

The work has found inspiration in mythologies, disgusting stereotypes, feelings and fantasies of the queer body and identities, homophobic dancehall lyrics, 70s Giallo films from Italy, resilient “gully queens” and queer voices in Norway and Jamaica that have visited and taken part of the process.

Categories
Benelux France

Alexander Vantournhout – every_body

November 12th, 2024 CC sint niklaas, Sint Niklaas
November 14th, 2024 Theater Malpertuis, Tielt

November 21st – 23rd, 2024 Les Brigittines, Brussels
November 28th – 29th, 2024 La Soufflerie, Rezé
January 24th – 25th, 2025 3 bis f, Aix-en-Provence
Feburary 8th, 2025 cultuurcentrum Hasselt, Hasselt
Feburary 12th, 2025 CC Het Gasthuis, Aarschot
Feburary 13th, 2025 Belgica Theater, Dendermonde
Feburary 19th – 22th, 2025 kunstencentrum Nona, Mechelen
Feburary 25th – 26th, 2025 Festival DañsFabrik, Brest
60 minutes

From Ordinary to Extraordinary

© Bart Grietens

In every_body, choreographer Alexander Vantournhout, alongside collaborator Emmi Väisänen, delves into everyday movements. They elevate simple actions like handshakes and walking into a complex canvas of bodily dynamics. The duet transforms an ordinary handshake into an intricate choreography of arms, elbows, and shoulders, while a seemingly endless walk showcases the versatility of leg and footwork. In every_body, the duo crafts a tapestry of choreography, turning even the subtlest of movements into something remarkable.

The performance is further enriched by the sonic landscape created by composer and guitarist Geoffrey Burton. Fashion designer and scenographer Tom Van der Borght designs both the costumes and the surreal setting where every_body takes place.

Over the last decade, Alexander Vantournhout has built a diverse oeuvre. His work includes ensemble pieces like Foreshadow (2023) and SCREWS (2019), as well as solos VanThorhout (2022) and ANECKXANDER (2015). Every_body (2024) is his fourth duet, following projects like Through the Grapevine (2020), La Rose en Céramique (2018), and Raphaël (2017). The new creation marks the next step in his journey to dissect and reinterpret everyday movements, continually challenging and redefining the limits of human physical expression.

Categories
Archive

Thor / Thier­ry Smits – Pinkie Ponkie

November 7th – December 7th, 2024 Studio Thor, Brussels
60 minutes

A Cabaret with Gaytitude

© Thor Company

Using Gilbert and George’s The Ten Commandments as a narrative backdrop, Thierry Smits revisits the gay aesthetic underpinning his work: Genet and Fassbinder, Pierre et Gilles, Francis Bacon, Sylvester, and Brokeback Mountain.

Set in a cabaret with a giant pink carpet, two dancers clash with humour and lightness as they reinterpret the iconic expressions of the LGTBQIA+ movement. From disco to country to ambient, this choreographic celebration is as wild as it is overly sexualised, as chromatic as psychedelic. From one scene to the next, the dancing takes us back to the world of camp.

Dynamically and insubordinately, it reminds us of the sources of a gaytitude that exalts our imaginations today.