Last season director Lola Bogaert and I were introduced to each other during her research residency at Ostend’s cultural centre De Grote Post. Programmer Liv Laveyne knew Lola’s work and saw a possible connection with my dramaturgical practice. What a matchmaker she is!
After Monkey Mind, Lisi Estaras‘ inclusive dance performance, VRETEN! is my second experience in collaborating with a performer with Down’s Syndrome. A second research into a dramaturgy on how to share thoughts and questions about an inclusive society. VRETEN! is also a first: my first dramaturgy for an all ages performance (6+).
As we are going into our final week of creation, I can only share my huge enthusiasm about the work Lola is creating together with performers Sophia Rodríguez, Adnane Lamarti and Giel Roels, set designer Anouk van Kolfschoten, figures creator Paul Contryn and last but definitely not least soundscape-composer Sam Serruys.
So I suggest: offer yourself and your kids an immersion into our imagination!
The gym looks like every other school gym. Dancers seem to be ordinary dancers. Feet look like normal feet. Hands resembling ordinary hands. Until: look at that tongue! It is very long, isn’t it? I’m sure you can gobble down a lot with it!
Bodies become different, limb by limb. One body looks like a woman, the other one looks like a man, the next one is also a man, but different. Different from that first man. Different to that first man. Or to the other one. Who is who in VRETEN!? Who is normal? And who decides? Can the differences be bridged?
PREMIERE:
30 November 2019, De Grote Post (Ostend, BE)
08 December 2019, De Maan (Mechelen,BE)
