Any Attempt will end in Crushed Bodies and Shattered Bones
Jan Martens / GRIP & Dance On Ensemble (Belgium)
Note: stroboscope effect + loud music
The title indicates radical repression, if not sadism: “Any attempt will end in crushed bodies and shattered bones,” China’s president Xi Jinping commented on the demonstrations for democracy in Hong Kong in 2019. At the same time, in Europe the yellow vests, Occupy, Extinction Rebellion, citizens’ angst, etc. demonstrated on the streets.
Jan Martens uses the protests as a motive to transfer the battle for democracy, freedom and civil rights into a coordinate system of spatial norms and patterns of movement. He shows the cold side of the power apparatus and citizens’ solidarity. But the new star choreographer from Belgium doesn’t stage street battles; instead, they are contexts in which the protesters reject the games of the powers that be, where they create their own structures in space and time that oppose those of the police and military. Sweat, anger and effort are a part of this, but also deceleration as well as the wealth of relationships formed when a movement originates in the grass roots and has the goal of destroying a social glass ceiling.
Martens’ art is not founded on re-enacting real events, but rather in its access to the protesters’ inner agitation and emotional motives. People get together, group together and draw energy from intimate revolts and collective objectives. The 17 dancers, 17 to 70 years old, are as diverse as real society is. And Henryk Górecki’s concert for cembalo and strings unifies – as does the choreography – anger and power with extreme order and discipline.
Credits
Choreography Jan Martens Dance Ty Boomershine, Truus Bronkhorst, Jim Buskens, Zoë Chungong, Piet Defrancq, Naomi Gibson, Kimmy Ligtvoet, Cherish Menzo, Steven Michel, Gesine Moog, Dan Mussett, Wolf Overmeire, Tim Persent, Courtney May Robertson, Laura Vanborm, Loeka Willems Artistic assistant Anne-Lise Brevers Lighting design Jan Fedinger Assistenz Lighting design Vito Walter Costume design Cédric Charlier Costume design assistant Alexandra Sebbag, Thibault Kuhn Outside eye Marc Vanrunxt, Renée Copraij, Rudi Meulemans, Siska Baeck Technical director Michel Spang Technicians Michel Spang, Valentijn Weyn, Bart Van Hoydonck / Nele Verreyken Production management Sylvie Svanberg Production assistant Marie Luyten, Saskia Vervoort Production GRIP in cooperation with Dance On Ensemble Tour management A Propic Text excerpts from SPRING by Ali Smith. Copyright 2019, Ali Smith, use authorized by The Wylie Agency (UK). Music „Concerto pour Clavecin et Cordes Op 40“, Réf Im: 108884 Musique de Henryk Mikolaj Górecki, PWM Editions represented by Alphonse Leduc Editions Musicales; „People’s Faces“ written by Kae Tempest and Dan Carey, published by Domino Publishing Company Limited (50 %) and MANATA LTD, administrated by Warner / Chappell Music Belgium N.V. (50 %); „Triptych: Prayer / Protest / Peace“ written by Maxwell Roach, published by Milma Publishing Company, administrated by Kobalt Music Publishing Limited.
Production GRIP in cooperation with Dance On Ensemble Coproduction De Singel, Theater Freiburg, Sadler’s Wells, Julidans, Festival d’Avignon, Le Gymnase CDCN Roubaix Hauts-de-France, Norrlandsoperan, La Bâtie Festival de Geneve & l’ADC – Association pour la danse contemporaine Geneve, tanzhaus nrw, Le Parvis Scene Nationale Tarbes-Pyrénéés, La Danse en grande forme (CNDC Angers, Malandain Ballet Biarritz, La Manufacture CDCN Nouvelle-Aquitaine Bordeaux – La Rochelle, CCN de Caen en Normandie, L’échangeur – CDCN Hauts-de-France, CCN de Nantes, CCN d’Orléans, Atelier de Paris / CDCN, Collectif Fair-e / CCN de Rennes et de Bretagne, Le Gymnase / CDCN Roubaix Hauts-de-France, Pôle-Sud / CDCN Strasbourg, La Place de La Danse / CDCN Toulouse Occitanie), Perpodium Förderung De Grote Post, Charleroi Danse, CCN d’Orléans & Scene nationale d’Orléans, December Dance (Concertgebouw und CC Brugge), Flämische Regierung, Stadt Antwerpen, Tax Shelter of the Belgian Federal Government, Cronos Invest Thanks to Mr. Jean Chabert (STANLEY/STELLA), Wannes Labath, Nadine Scheuer and de! Kunsthumaniora Support Representation of Flanders in Germany and VISITFLANDERS (reception after the performance)
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