4 December 2017
Dana Michel – new artist collaboration
Key Performance is pleased to announce a new collaboration with the Montreal based artist Dana Michel.
In her pieces, Dana Michel explores the multiple facets of identity through intuitive improvisation. She brings to the fore the notions of performance alchemy and cultural bricolage – using live moments, object appropriation, and the juxtaposition of personal history with current preoccupations. After the immense success of Yellow Towel, she continues to criss-cross the globe with her new solo creation, Mercurial George. An exceptional choreographer and performer world-renowned for her moving work, Dana Michel was awarded the Silver Lion for Innovation in Dance at the Venice Biennale in 2017.
In this new collaboration Key Performance (international distribution & relations) joins forces with Benoît Lachambre’s company Par B.L.eux, who will assist Dana Michel administratively and production-wise.
22 May 2017
Key Performance Recruits
To reinforce our small team and to deepen our relationships with the artists and the art field, we are now recruiting an Art Project Manager (form of employment, timing and conditions to be discussed).
As an Art Project Manager you will represent our artists and place their works in the best possible presentation context. You will try to match bold artistic projects with the reality of the market. You will proactively search for and stimulate collaborations with the artistic and the corporate sector. You will maintain a high profile by attending international performances, festivals and conferences.
You have a passion for the (performing) arts, you can profoundly analyse a work of art and you are acquainted with the international arts market. You are a bridge builder, a connector with excellent communication skills. You are dedicated, flexible, integer and capable of working independently. You are socially skilled and keen on traveling. You are a problem solver with a positive mindset.
We welcome your motivation letter + CV to managing director Koen Vanhove (koen@keyperformance.se) the latest 30 June 2017.
15 May 2017
FUN! – new creation Lea Moro
We are thrilled to invite you to the premiere of FUN! by Lea Moro at Tanzhaus Zürich from 6 till 10 June 2017. In FUN! the Berlin/Zurich based choreographer Lea Moro discovers the world of theme parks and forms of entertainment. When, where and how do we have fun? What is the purpose of our having fun? And how is fun and laughter doomed to failure? The German premiere of FUN! is at Tanz im August in Berlin on 11, 12 & 13 August. You can find the preliminary tour schedule on this website.
02 May 2017
Marlene Monteiro Freitas at the Kunstenfestivaldesarts
After a successful series at TNDM II in Lisbon, Marlene Monteiro Freitas’ latest creation “”Bacchae – Prelude to a Purge”” will now be presented at the Kunstenfestivaldesarts in Brussels on 5, 6, 7 & 8 May 2017.
One of the greatest discoveries on the international choreographic scene, Marlene Monteiro Freitas fascinates audiences with her language of abundant vitality, her strong imagery and her wealth of references. In her works characterised by excess and expressivity, heterogeneous, disturbing and funny elements are combined with limitless creativity, like parts of a spectacular machine producing sensations. Her latest work is also her most ambitious. Based on Euripides’ The Bacchantes, thirteen dancers and musicians tackle the Greek tragedy – for Nietzsche, summoned here, the very illustration of the metaphysical function of art. Marlene Monteiro Freitas’ Bacchae are a war between the Apollonian and Dionysian, reason and intuition, form and dissolution of the form, individuation and self-denial. They also question art, life and art as the affirmation of life.
01 March 2017
Lea Moro – new artist
Key Performance has started a new collaboration, with the young and talented artist Lea Moro.
Lea Moro is a choreographer/performer based in Berlin and Zürich. Her very first works – Le Sacre du Printemps, a ballet for a single body (2013/14); (b)reaching stillness (2015) and The End of the Alphabet (2016) – indicate a peculiar talent. Inspired by canonical works or genres, she manages to bring together seemingly disparate elements with subtle humor. The bizarre choice of material, the opulent music and bold associations are always wittily composed into a meaningful choreographic-theatrical language.
Lea Moro was nominated talented choreographer in the yearbook 2015 of Tanz magazine. Right now, she is preparing a new group piece: FUN!, with 5 performers (premiere in Zürich: 6-10 June 2017). In 2017/18 she will be part of the Young Associated Artist Program at Tanzhaus Zürich in cooperation with Pro Helvetia.
07 February 2017
New creation Marlene Monteiro Freitas
Marlene Monteiro Freitas is currently preparing a new creation. “”Bacchae – Prelude to a Purge”” is a work for 13 performers. The premiere is planned at TNDMII in Lisbon on 20 April 2017. “”Bacchae”” will then start touring extensively – Brussels, Utrecht, Montemor, Porto, Montpellier, Athens etc.
22 June 2016
Key Performance this summer
Key Performance wishes you a fruitful, interesting and relaxing festival summer. If you wish to meet us, our collaborators can be found at the following festivals:
Koen Vanhove:
Montpellier, Montpellier Dance Festival (28-30 June)
Amsterdam, Julidans (1-8 July)
Avignon (18-22 July)
Gothenburg, Gothenburg Dance and Theatre Festival (21-25 August)
Maarten Van Cauwenberghe:
Amsterdam, Julidans (1-4 July)
Marseille, Festival de Marseille (4-9 July)
Avignon, Festival d’Avignon (12-25 July)
Berlin, Tanz im August (21 – 26 August)
Julia Asperska:
Amsterdam, Julidans (20 June-3 July)
Antwerp, Zomer van Antwerpen (3-25 July)
Gothenburg, Gothenburg Dance and Theatre Festival (21-26 August)
Do not hesitate to contact us!
9 September 2015
Marlene Monteiro Freitas/new creation
Jaguar by Marlene Monteiro Freitas in collaboration with Andreas Merk will premiere at Zodiak – Center for New Dance in Helsinki (FI) on 6, 8, 10, 11 & 13 October 2015.
1 August 2014
New artist collaboration
Key Performance is proud to announce that it has started a collaboration with the artist Marlene Monteiro Freitas. More news will follow on this website later on.
Born in Mindelo, the cultural capital of Cape Verde, Marlene Monteiro Freitas co-founded a dance company there before attending P.A.R.T.S., the renowned Brussels school of Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker. She pursued further studies in Lisbon, where she is currently based. Starting with her initial projects, she placed herself at a remove from schools and conventions. The adventures she plunged into as a dancer – notably with Emmanuelle Huynn, Loic Touzé, Boris Charmatz and Tânia Carvalho – already cheerfully tested the boundaries of choreography. She exploded those limits when she began to work as a choreographer, turning the body into an instrument of artistic subversion in works characterized by an extraordinary energetic display, with tableaux inhabited by hybrid beings in constant metamorphosis. She struck a chord with her trenchant imitation of Prince in (M)imosa, created in collaboration with Trajal Harrell, François Chaignaud and Cecilia Bengolea. For her personal projects she has chosen the collective Bomba Suicida, whose name suggests that the artists must act like terrorists to survive. She already has a half dozen works to her credit, including the solo Guintche and her first ensemble piece Paraíso–colecção privada [Paradise – private collection]. Her latest work, de marfim e carne – as estátuas também sofrem [of marble and flesh – statues also suffer], was presented at the Montpellier Danse Festival this summer.
15 May 2014
AH/HA – creation by Voetvolk | Lisbeth Gruwez
After two years of continued touring with It’s Going to Get Worse and Worse and Worse, My Friend, the Belgian choreographer/dancer Lisbeth Gruwez and her company Voetvolk are now preparing a new piece titled AH/HA.
Five bodies meet at a locale without a name, perhaps even in the middle of the night. On the rhythm of the circumstances they slowly grow towards one another, the way trash sometimes gathers in a deserted street. But their synergy confers unexpected power on them. They coalesce in one of the most expressive manifestations of humankind: laughter. Resulting in an encounter that becomes a dangerous feast of shared ecstacy.
With AH/HA, Voetvolk moves on to the cutting edge of its investigation of the ecstatic body. The performance explores the wealth of plastic variations of the laughing body, making its physical and psychic impact tangible for the viewer.
AH/HA is the first group performance of Voetvolk.
The premiere of AH/HA is planned at the Rencontres chorégraphiques internationales de Seine-Saint-Denis in Paris on 13 & 14 June 2014.
May 2014
Poste Restante in Gothenburg
After last year’s presentations in Stockholm (MDT) and Helsinki (Baltic Circle Festival), the Swedish art collective Poste Restante is now preparing a third series of Civilization and Its Discontents (part I) for the city of Gothenburg. The Gothenburg version of Civilization and Its Discontents (part I) will take place at Göteborgs Konsthall from 22 until 25 May 2014.
Civilization and Its Discontents (part I) is an interactive performance based on Sigmund Freud’s essay of the same name. During a 2,5 hour conference the individual visitor is given the possibility to examine her/his personal relationship to the themes of power, desire and responsibility, with the common goal of achieving a utopian community. Civilization and Its Discontents is a process work by Poste Restante, which is to result in a diptych performance. Part I is now on its third cycle of staging. The process investigates the validity of Freud’s stipulated dilemma of modernity – the only thing that holds civilization together is the repression of desire, witch ultimately makes us discontent. Freud’s work is brought in to serve as a starting point to further explore the problematic desire for a communion with others, while being unwilling to compromise oneself.
February 2014
LOITERING WITH INTENT: A Feast of Research
Key Performance is currently coordinating a major artistic research event in Stockholm – Loitering with Intent: A Feast of Research, which will be held on 5-7 March 2014.
Loitering with Intent brings together Stockholm University of the Arts (Uniarts) and the Society for Artistic Research (SAR) to explore formats for sharing knowledge that emerge from artistic research practices.
The event will inaugurate Uniarts’ new premises at Linnégatan 87 in central Stockholm. This distinctive building will be the centre of the three-day event spanning three floors. The days will be framed through the artist collective Poste Restante and offer the participants a variety of presentation formats, including performances and exhibitions of research projects, installations focusing on the readings of the Journal for Artistic Research, workshops analysing contributions, reviewing the reviews, and reflecting on how the networks forming in Artistic Research could work for the community. There will be speed dating about getting on, in and with research.
January 2014
Congratulations Jefta van Dinther who is the recipient of the Swedish Dance Critics Association’s Dance Award 2013!
The jury’s motivation: “Jefta van Dinther has in a short amount of time gone from intimate and intensive works to a grand format with Plateau Effect for Cullberg Ballet. The individuals become parts of a strikingly visual living organism. The rhythmic breathing and the generous approach towards the different disciplines of a stage performance embody “new choreography” making the movement into visual art, bathed in intricate light, while still being open for interpretation.”
19 November 2013
NEW ARTISTIC COLLABORATION
Key Performance has started a structural collaboration with Jefta van Dinther regarding the international distribution of his work.
Jefta van Dinther (NL/SE) is a choreographer and dancer working between Stockholm and Berlin. His productions are characterized by a rigorous physical approach and always imply a staged research of movement itself. Recent works such as Kneeding (2010), Grind (2011) and This Is Concrete (2012) are still touring on a regular basis. Last summer Jefta van Dinther created the much acclaimed Plateau Effect for 9 dancers of the Cullberg Ballet.
On 4, 5 & 6 December 2013 This Is Concrete will be presented at the Centre National de la Danse in Paris, while Plateau Effect (with the Cullberg Ballet) will be shown at MAC Créteil (Festival d’Autumne), Paris, on 5, 6 & 7 December 2013.
For October 2014 Jefta van Dinther is preparing a new piece for medium and large stages; As It Empties Out (working title). With this piece Jefta van Dinther will continue his investigation into the persevering, hammering away in physicality. Dismantling any skepticism of movement itself, and with six excellent dancers on stage, As It Empties Out renders the body as the main site of performance. Also in this new production Jefta van Dinther will continue to work with long-term collaborators lighting designer Minna Tiikkainen and sound designer David Kiers.
100th PERFORMANCE of IT’S GOING TO GET WORSE AND WORSE AND WORSE, MY FRIEND by VOETVOLK | Lisbeth Gruwez & Maarten Van Cauwenberghe in BRUSSELS (KVS) ON 20, 21 & 22 NOVEMBER 2013
“”After touring 22 countries around the world, performing at 80 separate venues and for an audience of more than 11,000, the universally acclaimed, prize-winning dance performance It’s going to get worse and worse and worse, my friend can at last be seen again back in Brussels.””
06 September 2013
PLATEAU EFFECT BY CULLBERG BALLET/JEFTA VAN DINTHER IN STOCKHOLM ON 18, 19, 20, 21 & 24 SEPTEMBER 2013
“”Jefta van Dinther (SE/NL) creates an overwhelming world for the international Cullberg Ballet (Stockholm) where dance, materials, sound and light each play an equal role. The force and the effort of the dancers, in interplay with the materials, generates beautiful images on the stage. The plateau effect is felt, and certainly not uninteresting.””
“”During the world premiere of Van Dinther’s newest creation, nine dancers construct three wondrous worlds.””?””Hallucinatory, never shown before, it seems to be a film that we are looking at.””
“”… it is a soft, smooth, seductive world. When the dancers finally walk upright again, they are totally transformed, creatures from another planet. Infinite energy vibrates through their undulating bodies, the generated heat streaming towards the audience. An audience that now, alas, has to leave Van Dinther’s universe.””
22 August 2013
New creation POSTE RESTANTE
Civilization and Its Discontents is the first part of a new project by the Swedish performance collective Poste Restante, in coproduction with MDT (SE), Baltic Circle (FI), Leikfélag Akureyrar (IS) and Key Performance (SE). The opening series of Civilization and its Discontents will take place in Stockholm on 12, 13, 16, 17, 20, 21, 22 September 2013.
Civilization and Its Discontents is for those who believe in their existential freedom but are afraid of where it is going to take them. Civilization and Its Discontents is a kickoff-seminar on organizing freedom. During the seminar visitors and performers work together to create guidelines on how everybody’s individual freedom can be co-organized in a temporary utopia. A place where dark desires and selfish instincts can co-exist with what Freud defined as the cornerstones of civilization: Beauty, Order and Hygiene.
20 June 2013
TRAJAL HARRELL at Impulstanz & Tanz im August
Between 21 and 26 July, the New York based choreographer Trajal Harrell will present his entire series Twenty Looks or Paris is Burning at The Judson Church at Impulstanz (Vienna). The Made-to-Measure size of the series, Judson Church is Ringing in Harlem, has also been invited by Tanz im August (Berlin) on 17 and 18 August 2013.
In his brilliant six-size project Twenty Looks or Paris is Burning at The Judson Church, Trajal Harrell brings together what was not meant to be together at its time: the voguing ballroom scene from Harlem and the groundbreaking postmodern dancers of the Judson Church Dance Theater.
Impulstanz is the first to present the whole series – from (XS), over (M)imosa – an artistic collaboration with Cecilia Bengolea, François Chaignaud and Marlene Freitas – to Antigone Sr. (L), giving the audience ample opportunities to play with the different sizes.
10 March 2013
High heels too (Benoît Lachambre/Cullberg Ballet) premiered on 1 March.
“”Crucial and truly outstanding is the music. If there is a story in High heels too, it is told by Hahn Rowe’s exquisite, sophisticated live-electronica, intimately influencing and being influenced by everything taking place on stage. Beginning with hardly audible crackles and glitches, continuing with repeating synthetical bird song and icing bows. Hahn Rowe creates a room within the room, deepening and reinforcing the totality. High heels is hardly a dance blockbuster, but one of the most poetic, thought provoking works I have ever seen with Cullberg Ballet.
Narrow, yet not difficult. Definitely sublime. Absolutely stunning.”” Örjan Abrahamsson, Dagens Nyheter, 3 March 2013
“”High heels too is a perspective play with body, gender, room, tension and shifts between the artificial and the intuitive – also emphasized by Hahn Rowe’s subtle composition of sound and electronic beats. The piece moves from surface to interior with an accelarating pulse. With is sculptural qualities the piece could also be presented in an art context – the dancing doesn’t begin until the end.””
The movements are transmitted from the spine and outwards. That is the core of Lachambre’s body concious movement philosophy. The outwork helps us see; the visual and auditory totality captures the interest almost all the way. It could have been banal but is suggestive and beautiful.”” Anna Angström, Svenska Dagbladet 3 March 2013
“”High heels too is a poetic play with the interaction between the body and everything contributing to changing its original shape, or if preferred, a study in man’s obsession of changing identity.”” Lena Andrén, Nummer.se, 2 March 2013
20 October 2012
GHOAST ROAD & AN OLD MONK
Key Performance & LOD | Muziektheater have the pleasure to invite you to two new works by LOD: An Old Monk by Josse De Pauw and Ghost Road by Fabrice Murgia.
An Old Monk is a joint venture by Josse De Pauw and Kris Defoort. A piece about aging and longings; a new dramatic concert to follow The Soul of the Ant and Weg. Read more about An Old Monk here »
Ghost Road by Fabrice Murgia and Dominique Pauwels, with the actress Viviane De Muynck in a leading role, premiered last month and was very well received by public and press alike. The ghost towns, dilapidated houses and rusting gas stations along the roads of California, Arizona and Nevada inspired the makers to create a portrait of the wilderness that remains after a society is lost. Read more about Ghoast Road here »
If you wish to attend these two works in the same week, we would be happy to host you in the Belgian city of Ghent, between 13 and 16 November 2012.
27 August 2012
GHOAST ROAD
Is a new music theatre performance from Fabrice Murgia & Dominique Pauwels (LOD) with Viviane De Muynck & Jacqueline van Quaille .
The ghost towns, dilapidated houses and rusting gas stations along the roads of California, Arizona and Nevada inspired Fabrice Murgia and Dominique Pauwels to create Ghost Road.
A portrait of the wilderness that remains after a society is lost.
Read more about Ghoast Road here »
27 May 2012
LAND-RESEARCH
After a 2 week residency in Fabrik Potsdam (DE) the new piece by Arkadi Zaides : Land-Research premiered during Potsdamer Tanztage on the 25th of May.
In Land-Research, Arkadi Zaides concentrates on presenting the individual voices of five performers from different backgrounds, exploring their inner relationship with the broad idea of land. Informed by a multitude of texts, images, bodily investigations and questions, which responded to their individual work process, the performers approach their bodies as a private landscape, shaped and challenged by its surrounding.
The piece will be shown In Tel Aviv every month till the end of the year. You can also see it during Julidans Next 2012.
Please consult our Agenda for more touring information.
Read more about the work here »
26 April 2012
LONG GRASS
is the new creation by Inne Goris, Dominique Pauwels & Kurt d’Haeseleer (LOD)
which will premiere at the Kunstenfestivaldesarts, Brussels (BE) from 12 to 20 May 2012.
Horror, innocence and the delicate link between them are recurrent themes in Inne Goris’s work. In several of her previous shows, she has explored the cruelty of human nature through the archetypal evil described in Greek tragedies and children’s tales. The starting point for the Brussels-based director’s latest creation is contemporary stories of child soldiers, allowing her to examine the thin line between the victim and the torturer. Inne Goris leaves behind the African context that has produced these accounts because this is not about politics. Making us look at our own dark side, she examines the tipping point that leads the individual – and the child – to commit the most dreadful atrocities. A theatrical installation combining video images with words by Peter Verhelst and a sound environment by Dominique Pauwels, Hoog Gras (Long Grass) uses an intimate device to give a palpable rendition, with power and decency, of the cutthroat drama of the human condition.
04 March 2012
THE STRINDBERG PROJECT
is the new creation by Cullberg Ballet which will premiere at Dansens Hus, Stockholm (SE) on 15, 16, 17 March and 21, 22, 23, 24 March 2012.
This year Sweden pays attention to August Strindberg who died 100 years ago. Cullberg Ballet has invited choreographer Tilman O’Donnell and director Melanie Mederlind to be inspired by and/or react against the Swedish icon in their very own personal ways. They will each create dance works for an evening’s performance. The Cullberg Ballet will encounter Strindberg in a new form. Exclusive, unexpected and up close.
Read more about the work here »
9 January 2012
IT’S GOING TO GET WORSE AND WORSE AND WORSE, MY FRIEND
is the title of the new work by Lisbeth Gruwez | Voetvolk which premiered on January 12th at the Beursschouwburg in Brussels (BE).
In “”It’s going to get worse and worse and worse, my friend”” Lisbeth Gruwez dances the trance of that ecstatic speechifying. In the process, she takes advantage of fragments from a speech by theultraconservative American televangelist Jimmy Swaggart.
Initially the parlance is friendly and pacifying, but from his compulsive desire to persuade transpires growing despair. Eventually it exposes its deepest nature: violence.
Read more about the work here »
11 June 2011
29
Is the number of times Poste Restante will perform The Dinner Club this summer; within the Zomer van Antwerpen in July; at the Salzburger Festspiele in August.
Read more about The Dinner Club here »
28 May 2011
Successful premieres BERLIN ELSEWHERE and THE HANGED
Berlin Elsewhere by Constanza Macras/DorkyPark, and De Gehangenen (The Hanged) by LOD / Josse De Pauw & Jan Kuijken, have premiered successfully and are being very well received by the press and the public alike. The website is now updated with the first – and excellent – press excerpts as well as the remaining tour schedules. Do not miss both performances!
Also a must-see is the LOD creation Middle East, composed by Frank Nuyts, on a libretto of Philippe Blasband and directed by Johan Dehollander. Middle East is a chamber opera that takes the failure of the peace negotiations between Israel and Palestine as an artistic starting point. Performances: 26 & 27 May 2011 at Flanders Opera in Ghent and 28 & 29 May 2011 at the Rotterdamse Schouwburg.
8 March 2011
Key Performance warmly welcomes
Arkadi Zaides as a new artistic partner, and Julia Asperska as a new collaborator.
Arkadi Zaides lives and works in Tel Aviv. His works, such as Solo Siento, Solo Colores and Quiet are being shown extensively in Israel and worldwide. Embedded in Arkadi Zaides’ work is a belief that the role of art is to challenge and inspire viewers, while simultaneously it has a larger universal role to reach out and bring together different communities and different sectors of society. Arkadi is increasingly working in diverse communities, focusing primarily on the Arab sector in Israel.
Julia Asperska freshly started as art project manager in Key Performance on 1 March. Julia (formerly International Relations officer at Teatr Dramatyczny in Warsaw) will be responsible for our contacts in the Central and Eastern European countries, as well as for the coordination of Arkadi Zaides’ tours.
10 february 2011
True Stories of Castaways & Other Survivors
is the title of the new piece created by the Norwegian choreographer Ina Christel Johannessen for Cullberg Ballet (SE). This creation for 9 dancers will premiere on the small stage of The House of Dance in Stockholm on 25 & 26 February as well as 1, 2, 3 March 2011, followed by a tour in Sweden and Norway.
If you would like to have more info, complimentary tickets or video material, please contact us at info@keyperformance.se
Read more about True Stories here »
3 December 2010
WE ARE PROUD TO ANNOUNCE that CONSTANZA MACRAS has won this year’s German Theater-Award DER FAUST
in the category BEST CHOREOGRAPHY for the production MEGALOPOLIS
(a production by Schaubühne am Lehniner Platz Berlin and CONSTANZA MACRAS I DORKYPARK in coproduction with Hellerau – European Center of Arts and MESS Sarajevo)