The Sea Within

“We are very good at taking things apart these days,
but we usually forget to piece them back together.”

– Lisbeth Gruwez

 
Having finished her highly acclaimed ‘triptych of the ecstatic body’ – comprising It’s going to get worse and worse and worse, my friend, AH/HA and We’re pretty fuckin’ far from okay – Lisbeth Gruwez is changing course.

The eruptive choreographies that established her reputation are now making space for incessantly swirling magma. The Sea Within is a magnetising dance performance in which Gruwez no longer wants to order the chaos, but lets the chaos create or become its own order. Still just as sharp and intense, but no longer zooming in on individuals, she lets ten dancers dissolve in a grand, breathing landscape.

For the first time in her career Gruwez is not dancing her own choreography but selected a group of ten female dancers. Ten powerful lotus flowers that are symbols of connection. Together, they bring a new, contemporary ritual in which the ‘we’ embraces the ‘I’.

As usual, Maarten Van Cauwenberghe is writing the score to this performance, assisted by Elko Blijweert and Bjorn Eriksson. Minimalistic synths and a tingling game with frequencies push their electronic sound design to the bottom of your senses.

CREDITS

Concept and choreography: Lisbeth Gruwez

Music and sound design: Maarten Van Cauwenberghe, Elko Blijweert & Bjorn Eriksson

Performance: Ariadna Gironès Mata, Charlotte Petersen, Cherish Menzo, Daniela Escarleth Romo Pozo, Francesca Chiodi Latini, Jennifer Dubreuil Houthemann, Natalia Pieczuro, Sarah Klenes, Sophia Mage & Chen-Wei Lee

Dramaturgy: Bart Meuleman

Repetitor: Lucius Romeo-Fromm

Light design: Harry Cole

Scenography: Marie Szersnovicz

Technical director: Thomas Glorieux

Production manager: Arnaud Vanrafelghem

Communication assistant: Daan Borloo

Production: Voetvolk vzw

Coproduction: Royal Flemish Theatre, Festival de Marseille / Théâtre Le Merlan, Rencontres Chorégraphiques Internationales de Seine-Saint-Denis, TANDEM Arras-Douai, Theater Freiburg, Le Fond du dotation du Quartz, La Rose des Vents, Theater Im Pumpenhaus, Julidans, Kunstfest Weimar, CNN Nantes, CDC Toulouse, Tanz im August / HAU Hebbel am Ufer Berlin, Vooruit / Campo, Charleroi Danse & Key Performance

Residencies: Troubleyn | Jan Fabre, Charleroi Danse, Arts Centre BUDA & Royal Flemish Theatre

With the support of: Arts Centre NONA, the Flemish Community, the Flemish Community Commission & the Belgian Tax Shelter

Voetvolk is allied to Troubleyn | Jan Fabre and the Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp as ‘company-in-residence’.
Voetvolk is ‘artiste associé’ of Le Quartz – Scène Nationale de Brest.