Into the open
Big energy boost with this musical LSD trip from rock heaven
‘A crazy dance concert where three punk musicians and four loose performers threw a wild party. (...) Into the Open is grotesque, absurd and compelling, but in a cheerful way: an LSD trip from heaven,’ De Morgen wrote. After two years of sitting around doing nothing it was time for action, Lisbeth Gruwez and Maarten Van Cauwenberghe felt. Into the Open is a whole new form of dance. Or is it music? It is 'dance meets concert.’ Voetvolk invites you to take a leap of faith. Let's trance!
Julidans
Main programme
Run time 50 minutes
Location Melkweg
Venue the MAX
Into the Open
This year they are celebrating their 15th anniversary: choreographer Lisbeth Gruwez, musician Maarten Van Cauwenberghe, and their company Voetvolk. The last two corona years have been difficult, but now it is time for a lavish anniversary celebration. They got to know each other at Troubleyn, Jan Fabre's company, where Gruwez danced for many years and Van Cauwenberghe made music. Now they have made their twelfth production together, and after all the lockdowns it feels like a liberation. As in Belgium, Into the Open is also played in Amsterdam with a standing audience, as if it were a rock concert, in the MAX, the large hall of the Melkweg music venue. That creates a different atmosphere.
Julidans has a permanent relationship with Voetvolk. We presented Gruwez' first solo in the Vondelpark; then the company moved on, to finally open the festival in 2018 in ITA with The Sea Within. Music and dance are one at Voetvolk. ‘That is a real marriage. At least, that's how it feels, after fifteen years,’ Gruwez says. ‘Maarten fights for his music, I fight for my dance. This makes for very fruitful dynamics. We cannot do without each other.’
-|-With this performance, Voetvolk wants to consciously break through boundaries and go in search of new audiences. ‘Many people are afraid of dance, they think it is complicated,’ Van Cauwenberghe says. ‘While dance is so close to music. It is feeling, emotion, suggestion, imagination. Unlike a theatre text, it is not about reason, about understanding, but about emotion, feeling, intuition, imagination, opening yourself up and allowing yourself to be surprised by something completely new. Treat yourself to a big energy boost!’
Into the Open is a unique concept in which the boundary of where music begins and dance ends, or vice versa, has completely disappeared. Dendermonde, a power trio formed by Maarten Van Cauwenberghe, drummer Frederik Heuvinck and guitarist Elko Blijweert, takes centre stage, supported by the four dancers. Seven performers embody the groove and share the energy of the music. They whip each other up with 'body rock'.
REVIEWS
Charlotte De Somviele / De Standaard
'Into the Open is the max. All go there. (...) With their unique 'dance meets concert', Lisbeth Gruwez and Maarten Van Cauwenberghe have a hit. (...) Into the Open is a real energy bomblet.’
de Volkskrant
‘You'll go wild at the dance concert Into the Open’
