World Première – Lisi Estaras’ What We Can Do Together is coming up!

Our dramaturg Sara Vanderieck has been collaborating with choreographer Lisi Estaras on different performances since 2011. This week their new creation What We Can Do Together will meet its first audiences in Bruges, Leuven and Brussels.

Since 2016, Estaras has focused on inclusive dance practices and working with mixability dancers – dancers with diverse abilities. What We Can Do Together, a collaboration between MonkeyMind Company (BE) and Unmute Dance Company (SA), is a new step in this oeuvre. The creation of the performance began in 2022 with a residency in Bloemfontein, South Africa, where Estaras collaborated with dancers from the MonkeyMind company from Ghent and the Unmute Dance Company from Cape Town. Today, the performance is ready for its world premiere.

Uniting eight dancers from Europe and Africa, from various cultural backgrounds, dance styles, body types and abilities, Lisi Estaras emphasises ‘mixability’ and the beauty of diversity. In What We Can Do Together, the performers engage in a provocative dialogue that challenges our perceptions through the use of diverse forms of language, fantasy, humor, music, and dance. The piece questions our limited and limiting notions of youthfulness, fitness, whiteness, and ability that we encounter daily. This exploration opens a door to a new form of expression where different bodies interact, celebrating their uniqueness. The work explores how dance can push the boundaries of communication and invites the audience to look beyond limitations and discover beauty in diversity. What We Can Do Together offers a profound exercise in understanding each other without striving for absolute clarity. The result is funny, revolutionary, energetic, touching, impressive, absurd and simply beautiful. 

Choreography Lisi Estaras Creation and performance Nadine Mc Kenzie, Andile Vellem, Joseph Tebandeke, Elie Tass, Zoë Chungong, Sophie Warnant, Hannah Bekemans and Julia Luna Dierens Dramaturgy Sara Vanderieck Music Gabriel Chwojnik Sound design and video Sam Serruys Light and scenography Helmut Van den Meersschaut Costumes and scenography Louis Verlinde Administrator and production management Nicole Petit Attendant for Hannah Bekemans Marjan Colombie Attendant for Julia Luna Dierens Frank Dierens Production MonkeyMindCompany Gent (BE) and Unmute Dance Company Capetown (SA) Coproduction Charleroi Danse (BE), December Dance, Bruges (BE), Dorky Park in residence in Volksbühne Berlin (DE), Festival van Vlaanderen Gent (BE) Residency STUK, Leuven (BE) With the support of City of Ghent and laGeste (studio)

World Première 
7 December 2024 – 15h, December Dance, Bruges (BE)
10 December – 20h, STUK, Leuven (BE)
12 December – 20h, KVS, Brussel (BE)

See you there!

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3 days, 3 nights – première series coming up

The collaboration between our dramaturg, Sara Vanderieck, and choreographer Louise Vanneste will meet the audience through 2 new performances this season: the diptych 3 days, 3 nights and MOSSY EYE MOOR will be presented in November/December and in May.

With 3 days, 3 nights, Louise Vanneste returns to the solo form, linking up with geological phenomena through the prism of their physical and chemical characteristics. These encounters give rise to a hybrid figure, both geological and human, who allows herself to be invaded by narratives, hallucinations, scientific and chemical information, memories, sensations… These immediate, intuitive experiences yield a choreographic orality.

Through polyphonic, kaleidoscopic writing, sound, light, text and the body come together to create a form of science-fictional, dreamlike epic that combines raw anatomy and hallucinatory experience.

3 days, 3 nights will have its première tomorrow evening, November 28th at Le Vilar in Louvain-la-Neuve (BE) before continuing with three performances in Brussels on December 4th, 5th and 6th copresented by Kaaitheater and Charleroi Danse.

See you there?

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the Cliniques Dramaturgiques are coming to Geneva

Created in 2016 as part of the Festival TransAmériques (FTA) in Montreal, the Les Cliniques Dramaturgiques project is an approach that aims to develop an open platform and strengthen links with local artistic practices. The Cliniques dramaturgiques offer creators of the performing arts – choreographers, authors, directors and performers – a space for support and exchange. In parallel with Festival programming, they promote encounters between guest dramaturgs and local artists. This project aims to forge innovative links and encourage reflection on dramaturgical practices that are at once reflective, avant-garde and daring.

The multi-disciplinary festival La Bâtie is staging the first edition of this project in Geneva, in collaboration with the FTA and Julie Gilbert, who has set up the group of Swiss and international guest dramaturgs: Maya Zbib (Lebanon), Silvia Soter (Brazil), Edoxi Lionnelle Gnoula (Burkina Faso), Sara Vanderieck (Belgium), Jessica Huber (Switzerland), Lidija Burcak (Switzerland), Anaïs Clerc (Switzerland) and Antonio Villa (Argentina). During their stay, they will attend performances, take part in daily meetings and participate in public activities such as round-table discussions with l’Abri‘s young resident artists.

Above all, they will be offering dramaturgical consultations to Geneva artists. These individual meetings, open to all (registration required), enable participants to deepen their research and overcome the challenges of their creative processes. This service is part of a concrete approach to supporting the local artistic community.

The Cliniques Dramaturgiques de La Bâtie will take place from September 4 to 10, with the support of the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia and Flux Laboratory.

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the Curieux manuel is coming!

This Saturday, June 1 the Festival TransAmériques gives us a sneak preview of the book conceived and co-edited by Jessie Mill and Émilie Martz-Kuhn and put to book by Daniel Canty and the Studio Tagteam and published in collaboration by the FTA and éditions du passage: le Curieux manuel de dramaturgie pour le théâtre, la danse et autres matières à changement.

This book of applied dramaturgies, imagined from the transnational experience of the Cliniques Dramaturgiques brings together contributions, considerations, and perhaps advice from authors from four continents.
Jessie Mill and Émilie Martz-Kuhn’s wish: “to bring together a plurality of voices, perspectives and dramaturgical practices in a vade mecum small enough to slip into a pocket, a notebook to scribble in, crumple up, read and reread in the shadow of the rehearsal room.” 4 years later, this project comes to life.

In this unique Curieux manuel all the definitions of dramaturgy find their place : from the living structure of a work to the multiple dimensions that comprise it and hold it together. Nearly forty voices are brought together to share an amazing range of approaches, ways of doing things, ideas, creative narratives, stories and accounts of the creative process. Le Curieux manuel de dramaturgie pour le théâtre, la danse et autres matières à changement  is designed for artists, craftspeople, students, teachers and lovers of the living arts.

Moved by the invitation and confidence of Jessie Mill and Émilie Martz-Kuhn, our dramaturg Sara Vanderieck has agreed to translate her dramaturgical practice into written and published words for the first time.
Her voice will speak to you from this book together with Filippo Andreatta, Mathieu Bouvier, Loïs Brown, Martha Luisa Hernández Cadenas, Daniel Canty, Aurélie Charon, Michel F. Côté, Lindsay Katsitsakatste Delaronde, Mélanie Dumont, Martin Faucher, Riccardo Fazi, Cynthia Fleury, Dalie Giroux, Maryse Goudreau, Samuel Hackwill, Yohayna Hernández, Sarah Israel, Emmanuelle Jetté, Emily Johnson, Carole Karemera, Lindsay Lachance, Catherine Lalonde-Massecar, Mylène Lauzon, Catherine Lavoie-Marcus, Julien Lefort-Favreau, Camille Louis, Mathilde Maillard, Stéphane Martelly, Émilie Martz-Kuhn, Jessie Mill, Katya Montaignac, Coman Poon, Pierrot Ross-Tremblay, Felwine Sarr, Élise Simonet, Kouam Tawa, Nate Yaffe and Jacob Wren.

The official release in bookshops will take place on September 4th in Quebec and a little later in Europe. 

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It’s ANNETTE’s première tonight!

We are pleased to announce the premiere of ANNETTE tonight at the Rideau in Brussels. After a long, intense, and inspiring journey, the creation of Clementine Colpin and Compagnie Canicule, in which our dramaturg Sara Vanderieck participated, is ready to meet its audience.

Plunging into the flesh of a 74-year-old woman as entering a forest. Wandering through sensitive memories and the twists and turns of her memory. Feeling the richness and complexity of one’s existence. Meeting Annette.

There are encounters that mark you forever. When Clementine meets Annette, it turns her relationship with the world upside down. Indomitable, filled with an insatiable desire to be elsewhere and for freedom, Annette always ended up leaving the roles in which she was caught (mother, wife, wife) to embrace new territories and to constantly reinvent herself.

During numerous interviews, she offers Clémentine more than 70 years of intimate experience, and she talks to her about her choices, the history of her body, her escapes, even the most violent ones. How can we share the gift of this given memory? By summoning Annette, two actresses and two dancers to the stage, and weaving these memories into fantasy worlds, this portrait in landscape format offers us another look at old age.

Between philosophical exploration and carnival celebration, between testament and collective dance, ANNETTE: a tribute to the multitudes that we are, to our metamorphoses and our rebirths.

Conception and direction Clémentine Colpin – Co-conception and artistic collaboration Olivia Smets – Performance Annette Baussart, Pauline Desmarets, Ben Fury, Alex Landa Aguirreche, Olivia Smets- Director’s Assistant Charline Curtelin, Lila Leloup- Dramaturgy Sara Vanderieck – Scenography and costumes Camille Collin – Costume making Cinzia Derom – Assistant Stage design Elisa González – Sound design Noée Voisard – Lighting design Nora Boulanger Hirsch – Stage Managment Valentine Bibot – Lighting engineer Valentine Bibot or Nora BoulangerHirsch. Sound engineer Noée Voisard or Victor Petit, alternating – Visual photo Ana Teresa Barboza-Bordados.

A project of Compagnie Canicule.

Produced by Le Rideau, Compagnie Canicule and La Coop.

Co-produced by Le Vilar and Théâtre Les Tanneurs. With the support of the Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles / General Administration of Artistic Creation – Theatre Service, the Centre des Écritures Dramatiques Wallonie-Bruxelles, the COCOF, the SACD, the Tour à plomb, the Centre Box120, Charleroi danse / La Raffinerie, SEN – Studio Étangs Noirs, Shelterprod, Taxshelter.be, ING, and the Tax Shelter of the Belgian federal government. Executive Producer The Curtain.

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Dialaw Festival – Rythmes et formes du monde presents: When I look at a Strawberry, I Think of a Tongue.

We are very happy to announce that When I Look at a Strawberry, I think of a Tongue. has been selected for the Dialaw Festival – Rythmes et formes du monde in Toubab Dialaw – Senegal.

Dialaw Festival – Rythmes et formes du monde offers an international multidisciplinary programme combining music, dance, theatre and circus arts, as well as workshops, courses, conferences and debates, bringing together professionals from the continental, European and Asian scenes.

In When I Look at a Strawberry, I think of a Tongue, dancer Lisi Estaras, musician Mirko Banovic, theatre-maker Kristien De Proost and dramaturge Sara Vanderieck combine their disciplines and draw inspiration from The Art of Joy the great novel in which Goliarda Sapienza explores the concept of freedom.

For this unique edition – the first on the African continent – the artists are not only joined by guests Rahmat Emonds and Sayouba Sigué but are also transforming the performance for the beautiful location of Djarama Dialaw.

We hope to meet you there!

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Hello World – Première alert!

A few more days before Maxime Arnould’s Hello World will meet its audience during the premiere series at la Balsamine in Brussels. A long and inspiring journey of collaboration, reflection and trial and error with Maxime have lead up to this point.

Curious to discover what we’ve been cooking together? Get your tickets here and join us for one of the performances between March 14th and 18th!

“What does your safe place look like? *”

Hello world is an autonomous technological installation in which Maxime and a drone live together. Welcome to a programmed world that responds to our emotions.

With this creation, Maxime Arnould confronts his fear of drones and their double identity, both weapons of war and toys, and asks “How can technology become a medium of projection and creation of new ecosystems? In a crisis situation such as the one we are experiencing, it seems important to take a new look at the surveillance tools that make up the contemporary landscape (at home or outside), but also by reflecting about tools that are accessible to everyone to fight.

*A safe place can be a comfortable shelter, a place to protect oneself or a secure space. In an activist context, it is intended for people who are oppressed and discriminated against because of their gender, their origins, their sexual orientation, their political or religious ideologies. In a group or for oneself, it allows each person to feel free to rest, to express oneself without judgement, nor to have their experience denied, in order to find tools or perspectives for struggle.

Director & performer : Maxime Arnould
Dramaturg : Sara Vanderieck
Light design : Sibylle Cabello
Sound design : Noam Rzewski
Scenography : Louise Siffert
Interns : Pierre Simon & Jellissa Nawasadio
Production : Anaïs Bastin, Pierre-Laurent Boudet, Rocio Leza for Entropie Production
Coproduction : La Balsamine (Bruxelles, Be)
Support : Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles, Service général de la création artistique – Direction du Théâtre; Ministère de la culture Française dans le cadre du programme CHIMERES au Lieu Unique – Nantes
Support for the writing process : Association Beaumarchais-SACD.
Residencies : Ateliers Mommen (Bruxelles, Be), CAMPO/Victoria (Gand, Be), La Bellone (Bruxelles, Be), La cômerie – Montévideo / CWB (Marseille, Fr), La Fabrique de Théâtre (Framerie – Be), La Ménagerie de Verre (Paris, Fr), Le Delta (Namur, Be), Libitum Adlib’ production (Vaugine, Fr), Le Générateur (Gentilly, Fr) and workspacebrussels (Be)
Tender gratitude for their outside eyes and sharing of tools : Audrey Apers, Michele De Luca and Léa Tarral

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Goodbye 2022 Hello 2023!

2022 … what a year filled with inspiring projects for les enfants du garage’s dramaturg Sara Vanderieck!

Six performances created by women on which she collaborated as a dramaturg premiered and toured this past year: Lisi Estaras’ strong and sexy solo #THISISBEAUTY, Lola Bogaert’s and Anouk Van Kolfschoten’s audio walk sharing the stories of Hasselt’s young newcomers NIEUWE STEMMEN VAN DE STAD, Lisi Estaras huge participatory creation for OBV/VONK A Bigger Thing, Kristien De Proost’s smart and delicate duet with Frederico Araujo In the Middle of Nowhere, Léa Vinette’s vibrant dance solo NOX and Charlotte Goesaert’s exhibition performance WATCHAMACALLIT.

In May she participated in FTA’s Cliniques Dramaturgiques in Montréal and in September she initiated and organized the first Belgian edition of this wonderful platform for dramaturgical exchanges in Ghent.

Well … THANK YOU 2022.

And … HELLO 2023!

This new year announces new collaborations and next steps in longtime partnerships, and again a diversity in both disciplines and languages. Let’s already reveal some collaborations of the first part of 2023: Sara will work as a dramaturg on Clementine Colpin’s documentary performance Annette (Chapitre 1 : Le Goûter), on Maxime Arnould’s performative attempt at bonding with a drone Hello World and she has been invited by Serge Aimé Coulibaly to continue their journey with the dramaturgy of his new contemporary dance creation C La Vie.

Plenty of work for you to discover so … let’s meet!

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Goodbye 2023 … Hello 2024!

2023 … another year filled with inspiring projects for les enfants du garage’s dramaturg Sara Vanderieck!

Five performances on which she collaborated as a dramaturg premiered this past year: Maxime Arnould’s performative attempt at bonding with a drone Hello World, Clementine Colpin’s documentary performance ANNETTE, Serge Aimé Coulibaly new contemporary dance performance C La Vie, Carole Karemera’s performative exchange on racism Blind Spot and Maja Westerveld’s huge participatory creation for OBV/VONK Schemer.

Several of her collaborations continued their tours throughout 2023, including Vanderieck’s live presence for Lisi Estaras’ strong and sexy solo #THISISBEAUTY at Julidans Festival in Amsterdam and for When I look at a Strawberry, I think of a Tongue at the first edition of Dialaw Festival – Rythmes et formes du monde under the new artistic direction of Rachel Sigué Chenet and Sayouba Sigué in Toubab Dialaw – Senegal.

In May she participated for the third time in FTA’s Cliniques Dramaturgiques in Montréal, exchanging about the dramaturgical practice with Jordi Claramonte (Barajas de Melo), Carole Karemera (Kigali), Kama La Mackerel, Melmun Bajarchuu (Berlin), Emilie Martz-Kuhn (Montréal), Yohayna Hernández González (Montréal) and Silvia Soter da Silveira (Rio de Janeiro) and engaging with the local artistic community through one on one conversations.

Well … THANK YOU 2023.

And … HELLO 2024

2024 starts with Vanderieck’s participation in Vancouver Push Festival‘s first Dramaturgy Clinics at the end of January.

This new year announces several creations in recent and longtime partnerships, and again a diversity in both disciplines and languages. Let’s already reveal some: Sara will work as a dramaturg on three new dance creations: Léa Vinnette’s second creation Nos Feux, Louise Vanneste’s new solo creation 3 days, 3 nights and she has been invited by Lisi Estaras to continue their journey with the dramaturgy of her new inclusive creation What we can do together, a collaboration with Unmute Dance Company (Kaapstad – South Africa).

2024 will also be a year of artistic research and development for two of Vanderieck’s partners in workcrime: with Charlotte Goesaert she will collaborate on The Whole Shebang, a research into the performative body as bearer of documentary material and with Maxime Arnould she prepares the creation of Passion for Fear.

Goodbye 2023 … Hello 2024! Read More »

The Cliniques Dramaturgiques are coming to Ghent!

From 29 September to 2 October 2022, les enfants du garage will organise the first edition of the Cliniques Dramaturgiques on Belgian soil, in Ghent.

Originally developed by Jessie Mill within the framework of the Canadian Festival TransAmériques (FTA) as a basis for inspiring support for local arts practices on the one hand and the development of an open dramaturgic platform on the other, the Cliniques Dramaturgiques are evolving into an intercontinental collaboration with a first Ghent edition in collaboration with Belgian partners arts centres CAMPO and NONA and Canadian partners FTA and LA SERRE – arts vivants.

For this project, les enfants du garage brings together eight international dramaturgs for a conversation on dramaturgical practices in support of various artistic processes. Not “what is dramaturgy” forms the subject of this four-day event but “how do we do it”.

Moreover, based on this focus, for the Ghent edition the Cliniques invite several local artist-dramaturg duos to give an insight into their dramaturgical dialogue during An abundance of dramaturgical voices on 29/9/2022. And on the same day, Jeroen Peeters will present his new book And then it got legs: notes on dance dramaturgy.

In addition, at scheduled moments, the dramaturgs present will make their expertise available to local artists free of charge. They can sign up for a 90min dramaturgy tête-à-tête during which an intensive and enthusiastic listening and reflection around their specific practice will be offered.

invited dramaturgs: Bart Van den Eynde, Émilie Martz-Kuhn, Jessie Mill, Riccardo Fazi, Sara Vanderieck & Yohayna Hernandez joined by Audrey Apers & PAX.

An abundance of dramaturgical voices

On Thursday September 29th, les enfants du garage oragizes An abundance of dramaturgical voices as part of the first Belgian edition of the Cliniques Dramaturgiques, a full day of dramaturgical practice in which duos will give an insight into their dialogue. Dive into the universe of Kopano Maroga & Jan Wallyn, Kristof Van Baarle & Kris Verdonck, Esther Severi & Einat Tuchman, Riccardo Fazi & Benno Steinegger, Bart Van den Eynde & Charlotte Bouckaert and Sara Vanderieck & Lisi Estaras.

When? 29 September from 10am to 4.30pm – Where? Campo Victoria Fratersplein 1, 9000 Ghent – For whom? anyone with an interest in dramaturgical practice – Language? English – How much? Free – How? By registration, subject to availability. Register here.

And then it got legs: notes on dance dramaturgy

Book launch by Jeroen Peeters, with oral annotations by Heike Langsdorf and Kristof Van Baarle

Drawing on his experience in the field of contemporary dance, in And then it got legs: Notes on dance dramaturgy Jeroen Peeters discusses principles, methods and practices that contribute to an understanding of dramaturgy as an experimental, collaborative practice and a material form of thinking. How do you set up conditions for the work to come about? How do you create a shared ground for exploring the unfamiliar in pursuit of making sense? The book is written from practice and reflects a particular history of collaboration and conversation with various dance-makers.

            And then it got legs is published by Varamo Press and will be launched in the framework of Cliniques Dramaturgiques. Dance-making and dramaturgy thrive on embodied knowledge, oral transmission and a culture of commoning. This spirit guides the presentation too: performance artist Heike Langsdorf and dramaturg Kristof Van Baarle will respond to the book with oral annotations, followed by a conversation with Jeroen Peeters.

Jeroen Peeters is an essayist, dramaturg and performer based in Brussels. He has published widely on contemporary dance and on issues such as ecologies of attention, readership, embodied knowledge, material literacy and sustainable development. Publications include a book on Meg Stuart’s work, Are we here yet? (2010), the essay collection on spectatorship in dance Through the Back: Situating Vision between Moving Bodies (2014) and an essay on Mette Edvardsen’s work, Something Some things Something else (2019). Peeters is currently a research fellow at Hasselt University, Faculty of Architecture and Arts, and PXL-MAD School of Arts.

When? 29 September from 6pm to 7.30pm – Where? Campo Victoria Fratersplein 1, 9000 Ghent – Language? English – How much? Free – How? By registration, subject to availability. Register here.

this edition of the Cliniques Dramaturgiques is possible thanks to the financial support of Stad Gent – Cultuur Gent and the grant for cultural collaboration Flanders-Quebéc 2021-2023

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