Arts Flanders Performing Arts

International Dance Day 2012, UNESCO – Sidi Larbi Charkaoui

vti — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 14:17:35 +0000

29 April 2012

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In 2012 the International Dance Day celebrates its 30th anniversary. Every year a message from an outstanding choreographer or dancer is circulated throughout the world. This year Belgian-Moroccan artist Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui was asked to be the author of the international message. The personality is selected by the founding entity of the International Dance Day - the International Dance Committee of the ITI, which collaborates with World Dance Alliance, a Cooperating Member of the ITI.

In 1982 the Dance Committee of the ITI founded International Dance Day to be celebrated every year on the 29th April, anniversary of Jean-Georges Noverre (1727-1810), the creator of modern ballet. The intention of the «International Dance Day Message» is to celebrate Dance, to revel in the universality of this art form, to cross all political, cultural and ethnic barriers and bring people together with a common language - Dance.

Together with the World Dance Alliance, ITI and its Dance Committee celebrate International Dance Day at UNESCO in Paris.

More info
International Dance Day 2012
29 April 2012, UNESCO, Paris
www.iti-worldwide.org/danceday.php

Performing Arts

SuperBodies

vti — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 14:13:14 +0000

3rd Triennial for Contemporary Art, Fashion and Design

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‘SuperBodies’ is the third edition of the triennial for contemporary art, fashion and design organised by the city of Hasselt. The first edition was simply called ‘Super!’ Starting with the second edition, a specific theme was chosen for each edition. In 2009 that theme was ‘stories’. Hence the title ‘SuperStories’. For 2012, the chosen theme is the human body. So this edition is called ‘SuperBodies’.

However, in spite of its name, ‘SuperBodies’ is not an exhibition about super-bodies and super-people. On the contrary, it is actually about just regular bodies. Because even though bodies are not all that extraordinary or perfect, they do do wonderful things—they are, in fact, wonderful machines.

For decades now, the body had been ubiquitous, in art as well as in the popular media, in fashion and in design. Even dance focuses more and more on the body in and of itself, not on the steps that the dancers perform. However, the media in particular seldom shows regular bodies. On the contrary, they wholesale extreme bodies—extremely perfect, heroic, ecstatic or just extremely pitiful. Those bodies are so different from the normal that they fascinate us because of their oddity. That fascination goes hand in hand with a considerable attention to the culture of body. Sometimes it seems as if one expects a final truth—an ultimate fulfilment—from the body.

Our mortal body however seldom succeeds in fulfilling all those big expectations. The body of the media is far removed from everyday life. However, as long as we blindly stare at that extraordinary body, we will not be able to see how extraordinary the ordinary body is. Innumerable bodily processes, which we barely notice, steer our being and our thinking. That is the point of departure of this exhibition. Can one reflect on this and then turn a performance of those unobserved bodily processes into art? How do these processes relate to our conscious thoughts and feelings? And what then is there to see? Curator Pieter T’Jonck asked himself these same questions during the compilation of this exhibition.

He discovered that many, leading artists had devoted (a portion of) their oeuvres to these questions, long in the shadow of the great force of media. Although now they reap ever increasing recognition because they confront us with material things and how we perceive and experience them.

Things that we do daily, without thinking but which are all mediated by our bodies.

Artists collaborating are Lemm&Barkey, Meg Stuart, Ivo Dimchev, Trisha Brown, Lisbeth Gruwez, Deufert & Plischke, William Forsythe, Superamas, and many more!

More info:
SuperBodies, 3rd Triennial for Contemporary Art, Fashion and Design
4/2/2012 > 27/5/2012
Different locations in Hasselt BE
www.superbodies.be

Visual Arts

Ins & Outs. A Field Analysis of the Performing Arts in Flanders

vti — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 14:08:01 +0000

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Several years after the publication of Metamorphoses. Performing Arts in Flanders since 1993, this new edition of VTi’s field analysis shows how the world of performing arts has continued to evolve since 2005. Has there been further growth and hybridisation of the output? Who are the major players in an increasingly dense (co)production network that extends throughout Belgium and abroad? What is the place of individual artists within this landscape? And is it true that there are ‘no longer any seasons’?

Ins & Outs. A Field Analysis of the Performing Arts in Flanders describes trends that have greatly benefited the performing arts sector. Yet these trends also raise urgent questions. How should we respond to these changes? Does the current policy and organisational framework offer a good basis for a sustainable practice? Is there sufficient balance between individual players and institutions, between continuity and innovation? Numerical analyses are complemented by essays from guest contributors and interviews by and with performing artists. All of them offer new outlines for a more sustainable practice and policy in the world of performing arts.

Get your free copy here.

More info:
Ins & Outs. A Field Analysis of the Performing Arts in Flanders
Joris Janssens (ed.)

Performing Arts

Meeting of EU region theatre and dance companies at Krokusfestival

vti — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 13:50:58 +0000

Friday 17th of February, start 1.30 p.m. at Cultuurcentrum Hasselt

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For the 15th Krokusfestival in Hasselt, the organizers have set up a meeting between all the theatre and dance companies for young audiences in our EU region (Germany, The Netherlands and Belgium). The reason is that the work of the various companies on opposite sides of the borders shows certain similarities.

Borders work like this: from a distance they are clear, but when you live close to them, things are more diffuse, complicated and challenging. But what does this mean for arts companies working for young audiences from different sides of several borders? Beyond a knowledge of each other's work, the Krokusfestival also wants to examine the different production and touring systems, as well as possible differences in aesthetics.

The Krokusfestival is an international festival that shows notable performances of high quality to a Belgian audience and stimulates artistic dialogue between Belgian and foreign artists. The festival has programmed 22 companies, seven of which are from abroad, and nine world premieres. They include Laika with Opera Buffa, Stella den Haag with Vroeger had je ossengal and De Kolonie with lap.

More info
Krokusfestival, Hasselt
15th till 23rd February 2012
www.krokusfestival.be

EU region meeting
Friday 17th February, starting at 1.30 pm.
Cultuurcentrum Hasselt
www.ccha.be

Performing Arts

Ontroerend Goed and Sydney Theatre Company premiere with A History of Everything in Sydney

vti — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 09:23:54 +0000

13th of January, 2012 in the Sydney Theatre Company

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From the Big Bang to the present day, Belgium's Ontroerend Goed takes on the vast astronomical history of our universe in this ambitious collaboration with the Sydney Theatre Company's resident actors.

Inspired by Charles Darwin and Richard Dawkins on the theory of evolution, by cosmology and E.H. Gombrich’s ‘Little History of the World’ and in the realisation that we're but a tiny dot on the timeline, A History of Everything spins backwards to the first fiery bang before leaping forward to our possible hereafters.

While literary works prefer a more anecdotal, fragmentary and fictionalised representation of the world, these performers' intention is to achieve completeness in the elusive astronomical history of the world and the universe.

A profound rollercoaster journey, this production will make you treasure your place in the history of everything.

Presented by the Sydney Theatre Company and Ontroerend Goed in association with the Sydney Festival.

More info
Ontroerend Goed & Sydney Theatre Company - A History of Everything
13th January 2012 at the Sydney Theatre Company
www.sydneytheatre.com.au

Performing Arts

Koen Augustijnen premieres Au-delà in Guimarães

vti — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 16:45:37 +0000

1st February 2012 - Centro Cultural Vila Flor

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Au-delà: further on, hereafter, beyond.

In his new piece, Au-delà, Koen Augustijnen turns his attention to imagining the after-life.

In a surreal stage setting, five dancers, all around their 40’s, their bodies loaded with a past, explore the possibilities, expectations and promises of a life after life.

Arriving in this in-between space, they confront themselves, their pasts, their actions and each other. They struggle with ideas of who they were, who they meant to be and what they did and didn’t do, in the hope that, in this way, and by accepting life as it was and is, they might reach a moment of insight or heightened awareness.

In search of transformation, they try to shake off the burden of existence in favour of balance and harmony. In this sense, Au-delà is as much an exploration of life before death as life after it.

In a move away from his recent work with baroque music, Koen Augustijnen perhaps surprisingly uses jazz to accompany his look at ‘life after life’, taking inspiration from the music of Keith Jarrett. The selected music reaches a transcendental and metaphysical level. It moves easily from small and tender to huge and powerful, from offering consolation to issuing challenges.

Augustijnen has assembled a cast of mature dancers who, with dramaturg Lou Cope and designer Wim Van de Cappelle, will embark on a journey towards Au-delà.

This production will be created in Ghent and premieres in Guimaraes on 1st February 2012. Au-delà will be performed in several Belgian and international theatres throughout the year.

More info
Koen Augustijnen – Au-delà
1st February 2012 - Centro Cultural Vila Flor
www.ccvf.pt

Performing Arts

December Dance 2011

vti — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 12:23:04 +0000

1 - 11 December 2011

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British-Bengali choreographer Akram Khan is the curator of the fifth December Dance festival, a successful joint venture by the Concertgebouw and Cultuurcentrum Bruges. The programme features performances by renowned choreographers in the various classical and contemporary Indian dance styles, and also works by choreographers from other countries and continents.

Artists who will be performing include the Akram Khan Company, Mavin Khoo, Sanjukta Sinha, Crystal Pite - Kidd Pivot, Madhavi & Arushi Mudgal, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui & Shantala Shivalingappa and Shang-Chi Sun.

Akram Khan: 'I want to let the December Dance audience experience what I felt as a child. I grew up in a family where my mum played Tom Jones LPs on one side of the living room, while my dad watched Bollywood films on the other. Our contemporary reality is always such an eclectic mix of tastes. I want to recreate that living-room experience, but on a larger scale.'

East moves West

More info
December Dance 2011
1 - 11 December 2011
Concertgebouw en Cultuurcentrum Brugge
www.decemberdance.be

Performing Arts

Archipel: closing event

vti — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 14:41:23 +0000

16 November 2011

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The 21st century is digital. The Flemish arts and heritage sectors realise this and don’t want to miss the digital boat. But the questions we have to ask ourselves are: are we digitizing sustainably and with a long-term vision? Will we be able to find and reuse digital collections? In a classroom or an online exhibition, for example? And is it possible to link the digital collection to other collections and to enrich the collection? What about legal stumbling blocks? And most importantly, how do we achieve all this technically?

The Archipel research project, in which the VTi is a partner, has tried to answer these questions and to this end developed a prototype of a networked, digital infrastructure to archive and unlock multimedia content from the cultural and heritage sectors. During this research period, a range of organisations (archives, performing arts, heritage institutions, libraries, museums etc.) were able to connect up their archives.

Archipel has made an important contribution to technological innovation in long-term archiving. It developed a long-term vision for digital archiving and for digitizing moving images and sound. At the same time, it investigated the possibilities of Creative Commons as a possible answer to the legal problems.

On the morning of Wednesday 16 November, the research project will be brought to a close at deSingel with talks and presentations on the most important findings, and they will also be put in an international perspective. In the afternoon, a series of separate sessions will look at its achievements, both technical and otherwise. And in the evening it's possible to visit the E-CULTURE FAIR 2011 - GARDEN OF E in Hasselt.

More info
date: 16 november 2011
place: deSingel, Desguinlei 25, 2018 Antwerp
programma: www.archipelproject.be
sign in: free but mandatory: click here
contact: Olga Van Oost, olga.van.oost @ faronet.be of Jeroen Poppe, jeroen.poppe @ faronet.be

Performing Arts

E-CULTURE FAIR 2011 - GARDEN OF E

vti — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 14:37:23 +0000

16 November 2011

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E-CULTURE FAIR 2011 - GARDEN OF E – is a showcase for innovative Flemish projects arising from collaboration in the cultural world, the creative industries, research and education. This GARDEN OF E focuses on a broad range of e-projects on the digital heritage, active user participation, gamification, edutainment, ‘the internet-of-things’, open source collaboration, innovation etc. The set-up at the fair, with its installations, prototypes, demos, live presentations and living-lab-experiences, encourages encounter and exchange, and at the same time creates a possible starting point for future collaboration between Flemish and international creators, artists, researchers, designers, platforms and institutions.

E-CULTURE FAIR 2011 addresses everyone who is curious about the digital culture of today and tomorrow. Visitors get a unique chance to discover and test different projects, and meet the project leaders and designers.

E-CULTURE FAIR 2011 will show about twenty projects and ten academy-based projects from Belgium, The Netherlands and Germany (NRW).

Projects: UGent Memorie (UGent), UitID (Cultuurnet Vlaanderen), Timelab, Gent M, MuseUs (IBBT-iLab), EPICS EPICS (IBBT-ICON), De Mediatuin (IBBT, Telenet, Netlog, REC, SonicAngel), De Markt van Mij (Moose), noTours (The Milena Principle), Creating Spaces (Media en Design Academie, KHLim, EDM, Z33 Hasselt), TTNWW-Sagalassos (KULeuven), M HKA Ensembles (M HKA), Sculpturized! (Piazza dell'Arte), MTWalls (MTWalls), In het Wiel van Odiel (UHasselt), FutureFormers (Eeland vzw, Stichting P&V et al.), SenseTale (Alcatel-Lucent Bell Labs et al.), GameHUB (PHL Hasselt), OSMA (Media en Design Academie, KHLim, Play&Game Research Group et al.)

Universities in NL, BE, DE: KHLim (BE), HOWEST (BE), HVA (NL), HKU (NL), Sint-Joost (NL) and Folkwang Essen (D).

E-CULTURE FAIR 2011 is organised by the Flemish Arts Institutes (BAM, VTi, MCV, VAi) and is co-produced by Flanders DC, IBBT and Z33, as a partner event of the Creativity World Forum, a Flanders DC organisation.

E-Culture Fair 2011 is supported by the Flemish Government: Department of Culture, Youth, Sport and Media and the Department of Economy, Science and Innovation.

More info:
dates: 16 November 2011 from 10 am till 7 pm and 17 November 2011 from 10 am till 6 pm
venue: Ethias Arena, Hasselt
free admission

Performing Arts

KVS organises its third festival in Kinshasa

vti — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 13:29:45 +0000

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The KVS has been organising an annual July festival in Kinshasa, Congo, since 2009. For ten days, the KVS programmes fresh new work by local dancers and musicians in the Centre Culturel Français, together with bigger productions from Africa and Europe. The focus is on exchange and encounter.

Contemporary dance in Africa doesn’t have an extensive network, nor is it highly visible, and there is hardly any audience to speak of, so the need for this kind of platform is considerable. Resources for the artists are almost non-existent, and what there is comes from abroad. Accommodation to rehearse and perform is hard to come by, as are infrastructure and a professional framework.

The KVS doesn't have a surplus of resources either. Apart from the €50,000 for its general Congo operations, the organisation has received €85,000 from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and some resources from the Goethe Institute and the EU delegation in Kinshasa. Half of the total amount goes to Congolese artists and employees.

Although the subventions are diminishing, Jan Goossens (artistic leader of the KVS) would like to continue. ‘The future lies outside Europe. Enlightened humanism is being reinvented in Africa. Look at the Arab spring. If we continue to reflect our internationalization on Europe, we’re closing our eyes to the reality of our own multicultural cities.’

More info

Platforme Contemporaine
www.ccf-kinshasa.org

KVS
www.kvs.be/index2.php?page=congo&lng=ENG

Performing Arts

NTGent collaborates with Wunderbaum again

vti — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 13:26:59 +0000

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Onze paus was commissioned by the Polish Współczesny Teatr and written by Arnon Grunberg in February 2007. The play was rejected, however, and never reached the stage. Wunderbaum is now presenting its world premiere.

The play deals with the fate of Guillaume van Rompuy, a Flemish university lecturer on the Dutch Language. It’s difficult for him to find work in Flanders, so he decides to go and work at the University of Wroclaw in Poland. He follows his mother's advice that ‘life is still affordable there’. His girlfriend accompanies him.

Once there, it’s a total catastrophe. Van Rompuy and his girlfriend end up in a society that yearns to reap the benefits of capitalism, but at the same time revels in a displaced nostalgia for communism, deep nationalism, bureaucracy and tyranny. In this environment, Van Rompuy is a modern Sisyphus who simply endures his fate and undertakes a painful journey to somewhere undefined.

More info:

Onze paus
Stadsschouwburg, Rotterdam
7th October
www.rotterdamseschouwburg.nl

Performing Arts

Joris Janssens new VTi director

vti — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 13:23:55 +0000

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Don Verboven is leaving the VTi Institute for the Performing Arts and Joris Janssens will be taking over as director. The board gave him the mandate to draw up and carry out the new policy for the 2013-2016 period. Don Verboven will remain involved in current projects until the beginning of October.

Joris Janssens has been working as a researcher for the VTi since November 2001. He has been responsible for several studies, including De ins & outs van podiumland. Een veldanalyse (VTi, 2011) and Tracks. Artistieke praktijken in een diverse samenleving (EPO, 2007). Former work at the universities of Leuven and Vienna led to a PhD in Germanic languages and the publication De weifelende ezel. Over Vlaamse identiteit en Nederlandse poëzie 1893-1925 (Uitgeverij Vantilt, 2006). He has also contributed to the literary magazines freespace Nieuwzuid and nY.

The VTi team would like to thank Don Verboven for his commitment.

More info:

Joris Janssens - joris@vti.be - 02 274 17 67

Performing Arts

Ultima Vez premieres with Oedipus / Bêt Noir at Julidans in Amsterdam

vti — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 09:33:10 +0000

July 5th, Stadsschouwburg Amsterdam

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In Oedipus / Bêt Noir, Wim Vandekeybus is for the third time tackling Jan Decorte's quirky adaptation of Sophocles' Oedipus. Decorte presents the essence of the story in a language that is beautiful, poetic and ‘childlike'. An impressive cast comprising 16 dancers, actors and musicians depicts the tragic myth of this born anti-hero, who unwittingly kills his father and marries his mother. This is a drama with many layers that opens doors to an endless variety of portrayals and interpretations. Parallel to the directness of Decorte's idiom, Vandekeybus opts for a staging without any frills: pure, earthy and unvarnished.

Wim Vandekeybus:

'When a performance has a cleansing effect, it is focused on the audience, which gets a wash simply by watching it. Oedipus / Bêt Noir should be a sort of trip. You have to get through it and, like a good film, you are fascinated and carried along by it, abducted and moved, and either you hate this or you love it.
I don't like dancers who absolutely want to show that they are dancers in a theatre piece. But I do like dancers who can act in a refreshing way in a dance performance. Neither applies to Oedipus / Bêt noir, yet also both do. Moreover, myths are essentially uncomplicated: Oedipus is the guy who took his mother for his wife without realizing it. Drama - as simple as that - but with a very complicated undertone.

Jan Decorte's direct language is undoubtedly ingenious. Not only does it create a close relationship with the characters, but it is also very physical. It goes down to the raw heart of things, in which every single word counts.'

More info
Stadsschouwburg Amsterdam
5th July 2011
www.ssba.nl

Performing Arts

5 Belgian performances at Avignon Festival

vti — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 09:26:51 +0000

July 6th – July 26th 2011

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The 65th Avignon Festival is presenting 5 Belgian performances of which two are premieres. Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker premieres with Cesena, and revives Fase, Four Movements to the Music of Steve Reich. Regular guest Guy Cassiers brings the much-appreciated Bloed & Rozen, Het lied van Jeanne en Gilles, while Meg Stuart presents her new performance Violet. Crew, the multimedia collective led by Eric Joris, premieres with Terra Nova during the 38es Rencontres d'été de la Chartreuse.

For this year’s festival, directors Hortense Archambault and Vincent Baudriller chose Boris Charmatz as associate artist: ‘a committed artist who sets himself in motion to question the creative process in a different way, both the artist and the spectator's part, the performance venues and places for sharing’.

‘During this Festival the major existential questions will ring out once again: questions that haunt the tragic theatrical figures and underlie the historical destinies embodied on our stages through the work of authors, directors and actors; questions expressed through the authors' words and through the language of choreographed bodies. Movement will be at the centre of the works presented, but also the transgression of desire, transmission, the experience of childhood and its conflicting relationships with our society, and our own relationship to forgetting and denial.’

More info
6th July – 26th July 2011
Avignon Festival
www.festival-avignon.com

Performing Arts

Damaged Goods premieres with 'Violet' in PACT Zollverein

vti — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 09:18:21 +0000

July 7th 2011, PACT Zollverein, Essen (D)

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In Violet, Meg Stuart’s new work, five dancers simultaneously and singularly reveal an energetic landscape, a charged terrain of options. Their actions are manifestations of surging phenomena, imperceptible but always active. Violet is a steep descent into a maelstrom, a swirl of energetic patterns and kinetic sculptures full of detail, partnered live on stage by musician Brendan Dougherty on electronics and percussion.

After a period of collaboration and crossbreeding with other art forms, in Violet Meg Stuart turns to movement as a primary driver, pairing choreography with an alchemy of the senses. Perhaps the most abstract piece so far in her long career, Violet bears Stuart’s unique signature, an art that hones a frail ‘condition humaine’ in its intense physical emergence.

More info
7th July 2011
PACT Zollverein, Essen (D)
www.pact-zollverein.de

Performing Arts

Pina

vti — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 09:37:25 +0000

Dance, dance, otherwise we are lost

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Pina is a film by Wim Wenders celebrating the work of Pina Bausch. It focuses on specific choreographic works performed by the ‘Ensemble des Tanztheaters Wuppertal’. At the same time it’s a tribute to the choreographer, who died in the summer of 2009.

Pina Bausch was a legendary dancer and choreographer. Her unique creations transformed the language of dance and offer a visual experience like no other. The images in the film take the viewer to the very centre of a new dimension in dance.

The first part of the film focuses on the legendary dance company, while the second part goes into the streets of Wuppertal and the surrounding areas. Wuppertal was Pina Bausch's home and it provided her with a creative power that lasted 35 years.

The film premieres in Belgium on 4th May, but there are several previews in the presence of Wim Wenders, Alain Platel and Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, among others.

More info
Pina
4th May 2011
www.wim-wenders.com

Performing Arts

International congress and symposium: ‘A little bit of opera?’

vti — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 12:24:52 +0000

On chamber opera and small-scale musical theatre in a contemporary perspective

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The concept of ‘chamber opera’ isn’t sharply defined, but is often applied to specific forms of small-scale musical theatre. It can refer to a form of composition, to the space where it’s performed, to the scale of the composition, or to a combination of some, or all, of these elements. In many cases the term also refers to new or contemporary opera.

Despite the relevant presence and broad meaning, it’s striking that the term isn’t used a lot in the professional literature or reflection on opera. This paradox is the starting point of a symposium dedicated to the chamber opera in the context of contemporary musical theatre. What’s the status of chamber opera in comparison to the opera repertoire? What’s the role of chamber opera among contemporary forms of musical theatre?

The symposium takes place during the OPERA XXI Biennale, which focuses on new and contemporary musical theatre and chamber opera. The organisation is lead by deSingel, Flanders Opera, Muziektheater Transparant and LOD, in collaboration with the Flanders Music Centre. Participants in the symposium are Giorgio Battistelli, Judith Weir, Xavier Zuber, Wim Hendrickx et al.

More info
OPERA XXI
17 - 29 May 2011
www.operaxxi.be

Performing Arts

Kunstenfestivaldesarts 2011

vti — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 12:23:17 +0000

6-28.5.2011 Brussels

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The Kunstenfestivaldesarts takes place in May every year. For a three-week period it takes over around fifteen theatres and arts centres in Brussels, as well as various other venues in the city. The festival comprises a selection of artistic work created by Belgian and international artists: remarkable new works which translate a personal vision of the world today that the artists would like to share with audiences who are prepared to challenge and broaden their perspectives.

The Kunstenfestivaldesarts is a cosmopolitan city festival, and is part of a complex network of communities that makes territorial, linguistic and cultural divides increasingly porous. The city is the perfect environment in which to see this cosmopolitan society.

The event takes place in Brussels, the only city in Belgium where the country’s two largest communities live together. Several Flemish- and French-speaking institutions are involved in the project. Fundamentally conceived as a bilingual undertaking, it contributes to encouraging dialogue between the communities living in the city.

The festival also runs a series of encounters and workshops alongside its programme, with the aim of putting its artistic project at the heart of the city and in the minds of the people who live there.

More info
Kunstenfestivaldesarts
6 - 28 May 2011
www.kfda.be

Performing Arts

VTi presents its new field analysis

vti — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 17:29:42 +0000

04/04/2011 – Flemish Parliament

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On April 4th, VTi presents its new field analysis. VTi started the research project in a similar way to the process that lead to 'Metamorphoses. Performing arts in Flanders since 1993'. The new field analysis is, once again, research into the practice in the performing arts, with a focus on relevant trends.

The first edition explained important changes in the practice of the performing arts: the changing position of the individual artist, the rise of a more transnational practice based on cooperation and networking, interdisciplinary actions, and growth scenarios, but also an increasing fragmentation of the practice and public funding. The central question of the new field analysis is how the practice and policy can anticipate these challenges. Are the current policy and organisational framework a good basis for the sustainable support of the performing arts, with enough balance between the individual artists and the organisations, between continuity and renewal?

This analysis will be completed by perspectives from several outside external authors on how to deal with changes in performing arts practice. With contributions from Klaas Tindemans, Simon Van den Berg, Franky Devos, Jeroen Peeters and Karel Vanhaesebrouck. The artist's voice must, of course, also be heard in the context of this analysis, so the publication will contain interviews with Ivo Dimchev, Davis Freeman, Mokhallad Rasem, Guy Cassiers, Miet Warlop, Inne Goris, Erki De Vries, Stef Lernous, Johan Petit and Stany Crets.

This is a joint event by the various arts institutions, which will all present their own analyses.

More info

Monday 4th April
Venue: Flemish Parliament, Brussels
www.vti.be
joris[at]vti.be

Performing Arts

Needcompany premieres with 'The Art of Entertainment' in Vienna

vti — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 17:21:22 +0000

5/3/2011 – Akademietheater (Burgtheater) Vienna

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The Art of Entertainment is the new play by Jan Lauwers; it was commissioned by the Burgtheater. Through this production Needcompany strengthens its ties with the Burgtheater.

The Art of Entertainment is a black, almost cynical comedy about a famous actor, Saul J. Waner, who decides to end his life because he feels that his memory, the seat of the soul, is slowly dissolving. He is invited to kill himself in an internationally popular reality show: The Art of Entertainment. It’s a cookery show where a famous French cook will prepare the last meal for the suicide.

This is the starting point of the story of a wayworn actor who has run out of time. The profession he has devoted himself to wholeheartedly has moved beyond his reach. What kind of actor are you if you can’t remember the role you're playing, if you have lost the most important weapon in your battle against reality. But he won't give up. He will challenge history for the last time. He will play his game till the bitter end. By choosing the moment of his own death, he remains in control till the end of his life. This is his endgame.

Thus, The Art of Entertainment unfolds as the entertainer's apology, the death chant of an actor who could only exist in the game he played. When he is confronted by his one and only love, the one with whom he made love over a thousand times, and also the embittered Doctor Joy, who knows no boundaries, plus the world-famous host Liliane Van Muynck, a stand-up comedian making a come-back, a conversation arises about the decadence of the Occident, and the actor launches into a tirade about the downfall of his profession: acting itself.

More info

5th March 2011
Akademietheater (Burgtheater) in Vienna
www.needcompany.org

Performing Arts

International publication: 'Joining the Dots'

vti — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 17:17:13 +0000

15/02/2011

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Over the last decade, artistic practice has become increasingly international. Several Flemish artists have been abroad and foreign artists have started using Flanders and Brussels as their home base to prepare and present new performances.

At the same time, the question arises of what the different policy levels, and the sector itself, can do to further energize artistic practice. What elements form the basis of a sustainable international cultural policy? How can the existing instruments be used and/or updated? These questions form the core of the international publication Joining the Dots, building blocks for an international cultural policy, which was published on 15th February.

The publication is an initiative by the four supporting institutions, the Flemish Literature Fund and the Flemish Audiovisual Fund, and is the continuation of the Joining the Dots conference which was held in October 2010. The contributions present an image of how international practice in the different artistic disciplines currently works, and where opportunities or threats are.

More info

From 15th February you can download the publication from www.vti.be and the websites of the other partners.

Performing Arts

International Krokusfestival

vti — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 09:54:17 +0000

3/3 > 10/3/2011

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The fourteenth International Krokusfestival is on from 3 to 10 March 2011, and brings artists from all over Europe to Hasselt. These international artists will share the stage with several Belgian performers. The festival also supports new and young artists on their way to creating performances for children. Workshops will be given in an exciting parallel programme for young and old.

As in previous festivals, this one focuses on movement and dance. This is reflected in the programme. Wim Vandekeybus premieres his newest creation, in which he releases seven performers into an arena where they will juggle with dance, circus, theatre and music. In Kindur, the Italian company TPO tells the story of two Icelandic sheep in a world of trolls and fairies.

The French company Arcosm promises an impressive spectacle with lots of drums and breakdance. The Krokusfestival has also invited Jonathan Burrows and Matteo Fargion to make a performance with children. All this and much more. Full programme will be available in January at www.krokusfestival.be.

More info
Krokusfestival
3 - 10 March 2011
www.krokusfestival.be

Performing Arts

PERFORMATIK2011 - Black box or white cube?

vti — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 09:49:13 +0000

25/2 > 5/3/2011

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From February 25th to March 5th, Kaaitheater will be highlighting contemporary performance art, body art and live art. In this second edition, Kaaitheater will be collaborating with numerous partners in Brussels, each of whom will contribute their own expertise. This means that performance, as an art form, will not only be approached from a theatre and dance angle, but also from that of the visual arts, where performance art is flourishing now as it has in the past.

The festival opens at Wiels, the international laboratory for the creation and diffusion of contemporary art, with an exhibition entitled The Other Tradition. The artist Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster heads in the direction of theatre with the Berlin musician Ari Benjamin Meyers, while Kris Verdonck, artist in residence at the Kaaitheater, will be creating a site-specific exhibition. They were both inspired by the work of Kafka. After deciphering the codes of theatre and the office, deepblue is now turning to the hotel room. Barbara Matjevic and Guiseppe Chico revive two of the most successful lecture-performances from the last Spoken World Festival (November-December 2010), I am 1984 and Tracks, and present the world premiere of the third part, Forecasting: A Pirate’s Dilemma. And the Bulgarian Ivo Dimchev, one of the most intriguing performers around today, appears at the Kaaitheater with We.Art.Dogs.Com.

Black box or white cube? Exhibition or performance? PERFORMATIK2011 is a festival where boundaries are explored and codes deciphered. What holds it together is the live event, the encounter between the public and the performer, in the here and now.

More info
PERFORMATIK2011
25 February - 5 March 2011
www.kaaitheater.be

Performing Arts

Jan Fabre premieres in New Jersey

vti — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 16:56:18 +0000

20/1/2011

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On 20 January 2011, Jan Fabre's new production premieres at Montclair State University in New Jersey. The thread running through Prometheus – Landscape II is the story of Prometheus, who rebelled against the supreme god Zeus by stealing the Olympic fire to give it to the mortals on earth. In a way, it was an act of his own free will. In Jan Fabre’s view this makes him the figurehead of proud independence.

But there is also torment and humiliation: Zeus punishes Prometheus by shackling him to the Caucasus. He is subjected to the elements and, every day, an eagle tears at his liver. His liver, the organ of anger, of fury, gradually becomes an open sore. Every night the wound closes up, only to be ripped open again the next day. Prometheus cries out in pain and rage. The bearer of fire is himself on fire. His body reaches a form of ecstasy.

The new performance depicts the battlefield of our civilisation. Prometheus’ fire forms the basis of it all. But what has mankind done with the power of fire? What alchemy has been brought about? And where are the shining lights of our time?

More info
20th January
Peak Performances @ Montclair State University, New Jersey
www.troubleyn.be

Performing Arts

Jetherfst Festival – Danscentrumjette

vti — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 10:20:09 +0000

4 > 14 November 2010

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From 4 to 14 November, the Danscentrumjette will, in cooperation with Caravan productions, be presenting over 15 different performances, both in their own space and also in the Kaaitheater, Beursschouwburg and Zinnema. Some of their guests may be known to you, while others remain to be discovered. Aside from the performances, there will also be a debate entitled What’s next?

The intention of this debate is to initiate an exchange between guest choreographers, programmers, managers and critics from Belgium and abroad who are professionally involved in contemporary dance. Their aim is to discuss what evolution organizations are noticing or hope for in contemporary dance performances and creations. Secondly, they will be asking how the organizations see the future of contemporary dance. Everyone invited will have the opportunity to voice their opinions for 3 minutes. It’s a closed round table meeting without an audience. Several writers will make a summary, which will be published.

Artists performing at the festival include Marie Limet with Tout le monde ça n’existe pas, David Zambrano with Holes, Roger Vinas Lopez with Janus and David Hernandez with Hullabaloo.

More information:
Jetherfst Festival
4 - 14 November 2010
www.danscentrumjette.be

Performing Arts