Arno Ferrera & Gilles Polet
Biografie
Arno Ferrera
Arno Ferrera graduated in Physical Theatre from the Scuola Teatro Dimitri (CH) after ten years of gymnastics and six years of studies in baroque music at the Conservatorio della Svizzera Italiana (CSI). With Brussels as his base, he continues his physical training in contemporary dance in the Belgian capital. He participated in the European tour of the show Holiday on stage by Martin Schick and Damir Todorovič. Afterward, he participated in the creation of Opera Retablo in Vanity: I hate this job. Since 2018, he has served as artistic director of the Belgian company Kind Bull with Amaury Vanderborght, which aims to create artistic objects inside closed environments (mostly in psychiatric hospitals and prisons). He joined the company Un loup pour l’homme in 2015 for a new role in the show Face Nord, then participated in the creation of Rare Birds and later became artistic director of the Cuir project within the company. What he proposes with his projects is an invitation to abandon, to discover trust in the other, and therefore also to transform one’s perception of oneself. His work centers around touch, connection in partnering, and an analysis of animal motricity.
Gilles Polet
Gilles Polet first trained as an actor at the Lemmensinsituut in Leuven before moving to Leeds to study at the Northern School of Contemporary Dance. He graduated from P.A.R.T.S. in Brussels in 2008. His work ranges from opera with Deborah Warner at La Monnaie, Brussels, to choreography for music videos, to short films with directors Dimitri Karakatsanis, Andrew Ly, and Kevin Calero. His first solo Jack-in-the-Box was performed in Hong Kong, Tehran, and Berlin, among other places. Traveling through Iran, Gilles took a journey of initiation into the world of dance, which inspired him to create his next solo: Simurgh: the story of the Birds Conference, told by a GoGo Dancer.
Gilles has collaborated with Troubleyn/Jan Fabre for 10 years. Among their collaborations were the two re-enactments This is theatre like it was to be expected and foreseen and The Power of Theatrical Madness where he played the role of the emperor. He also participated in the creation and performance of Mount Olympus, to glorify the cult of tragedy, a 24-hour performance by Troubleyn/Jan Fabre. In 2020, Gilles focused on his career as a yoga teacher, creating his own outdoor yoga app called YOGING.
Gilles has collaborated with Troubleyn/Jan Fabre for 10 years. Among their collaborations were the two re-enactments This is theatre like it was to be expected and foreseen and The Power of Theatrical Madness where he played the role of the emperor. He also participated in the creation and performance of Mount Olympus, to glorify the cult of tragedy, a 24-hour performance by Troubleyn/Jan Fabre. In 2020, Gilles focused on his career as a yoga teacher, creating his own outdoor yoga app called YOGING.
He joined Arno Ferrera in Cuir in June 2021.
ARMOUR
After the duo CUIR, Arno Ferrera and Gilles Polet, this time joined by Charlie Hession, once again put their bodies into play in a trio that takes as its starting point the notions of protection, overprotection, and abandonment. The artistic research is partly interested in the world of sport, and in particular, sports that require special equipment to protect oneself from the adversary, on the principle of "the more one protects oneself, the more one can prepare oneself to be exposed to violence". The performers wish to go through phases of exhaustion to reach states of the body where softness, eroticism, and self-mockery find their place. Opening up to an assumed and welcomed fragility, the project proposes a representation of a free and generous, universal and plural love, a straightforward threesome. By dropping their armour, like abandoned shells, the performers become sensitive characters, ready to share their energies in joyful complicity with the public. The audience will be seated, echoing the trio on stage, in a tri-frontal manner.
“It is not true that men are unwilling to change. It is true that many men are afraid to change. It is true that masses of men have not even begun to look at the ways patriarchy keeps them from knowing themselves, from being in touch with their feelings, and from loving. To know love, men must be able to let go of the will to dominate. They must be able to choose life over death. They must be willing to change.”
bell hooks – “The will to change”
“It is not true that men are unwilling to change. It is true that many men are afraid to change. It is true that masses of men have not even begun to look at the ways patriarchy keeps them from knowing themselves, from being in touch with their feelings, and from loving. To know love, men must be able to let go of the will to dominate. They must be able to choose life over death. They must be willing to change.”
bell hooks – “The will to change”
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