Four dancers move in stop motion to a fixed beat. Like immortal superheroes, they engage in an endless cycle of attacking, defending, wiping away sweat and reloading. With seeming effortlessness, they continue to build on their imagined super-bodies and super-narratives. However, little cracks gradually begin to appear in their grand gestures. Are they ready to change the world? Or are they trapped in a system with no way out?
In her first group show, Mooni Van Tichel raises questions about desire, violence, power, glory, pain and vulnerability. Who has the right to defend himself? Who gets to be violent without major consequences? And what violence is rendered (in)visible? Inspired by virtuoso bodies, science fiction and the literature of Octavia Butler and Elsa Dorlin, the choreographer explores utopian and dystopian world views for our future.
“Shocking vulnerability, broken violence. In her first group choreography, Mooni Van Tichel combines several contemporary dance styles with stop-motion movements. Lavering between superhuman invulnerability and human frailty, four dancers try to break out of a cycle of violence. (...) The contrasts we see on stage are always ambiguous, hybrid. Behind aggression lurks vulnerability, behind power lurks oppression, behind airiness lurks doom.” - Natalie Gielen in Etcetera, 23 September 2024
concept and creation Mooni Van Tichel performers Costa Tombroff, Eli Mathieu Bustos, Manon Kanjinga Janssen and Mooni Van Tichel dramaturgy & choreographic research Antoine Dupuy Larbre lighting design Niels Runderkamp costume design Stefan Kartchev sound design Gizem Karaosmanoğlu outside eyes Krystel Khoury, Luanda Casella technical aspects Christophe Deprez production management Riet Meeus production workspacebrussels (Brussels) coproduction Kunstencentrum BUDA (Kortrijk), KAAP (Bruges/Ostend), workspacebrussels (Brussels) residencies A Two Dogs Company (Brussels), CAMPO (Ghent), c o r s o (Berchem), KAAP (Bruges), Kunstencentrum BUDA (Kortrijk), STUK (Leuven), workspacebrussels (Brussels) with the support of the Flemish Community, the Flemish Community Commission
