Contre-jour
Alexander Vantournhout (Belgium) & not standing (Belgium)
When you move on loose soil like sand or earth, you leave traces. With their foot- or pawprints people and animals 'describe' the soil and remind us of the original meaning of the word choreography : “writing with movements”.
But live dance is fleeting. It comes and goes and only leaves traces in the memory of dancers and spectators. In Contre-jour Alexander Vantournhout confronts himself with this “tracklessness” via solos and duets, live dance and song. The performance takes place on a sand plain. Six female performers walk, run, skip, move like a cat on hands and feet. They create several sorts of 'im-prints' which they also erase again all the time to make place for new signs, a new choreography. But also to be able to disappear because leaving traces behind may be dangerous. Like when you set foot on someone's property or want to pass a border unnoticed.
Alexander Vantournhout's work is a unique mix of circus and dance in which the first is stripped of its display of muscle and the second of its solemnity. Both his recent location performance SCREWS (2019) and his duet Through the Grapevine (2020) were selected for Het Theaterfestival. Now, and for the first time, Vantournhout completely opts for the role of choreographer and gives the stage to five female performers with various backgrounds in a.o dance, musical and circus.
“Our most talented circus artist” (Filip Tielens in De Standaard)
Introduction at 17:15
CONCEPT & CHOREOGRAPHY Alexander Vantournhout / CREATED WITH & PERFORMED BY Philomène Authelet, Tina Afiyan-Breiova, Noémi Devaux, Ariadna Gironès Mata & Aymara Parola
RESEARCH COLLABORATOR Emmi Väisänen / DRAMATURGY Rudi Laermans & Sébastien Hendrickx / REHEARSAL DIRECTOR Maria Ferreira Silva, Axel Guérin, Lodie Kardouss, Anneleen Keppens, Lise Vachon & Esse Vanderbruggen / VOCAL COACH & MUSIC DRAMATURGY Fabienne Seveillac
LIGHT DESIGN Harry Cole / COSTUMES Sofie Durnez / VIDEOGRAPHY Stanislav Dobak / SOUND DESIGN Bob Hermans
SPECIAL THANKS TO Kim Amankwaa, Willy Cauwelier, Euridike De Beul, Tom de With & Astrid Sweeney
COMPANY MANAGER Esther Maas / TECHNICAL PRODUCTION Bram Vandeghinste & Rinus Samyn / PRODUCTION & TOUR MANAGER Aïda Gabriëls / DIFFUSION Frans Brood Productions / PRODUCTION not standing / COPRODUCTION Arts Center Voo?uit, Ghent (BE), Cirque-Théâtre Elbeuf (FR), Le CENTQUATRE, Paris (FR), Theater op de Markt - Dommelhof, Neerpelt (BE), Theater Freiburg (DE), Charleroi Danse (BE), Lithuanian Dance Information Center, Vilnius (LT), Peeping Tom, Brussels (BE), Les Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg (LU)
With the support of the Flemish Government and Tax Shelter
Alexander Vantournhout is artist-in-residence in Arts Centre Voo?uit in Ghent and associated artist of le CENTQUATRE Paris and Cirque-théâtre Elbeuf. He is cultural ambassador of the city of Roeselare and is also supported by Fondation BNP Paribas for the development of his projects.
