The Goldberg Variations
Choreographer Michiel Vandevelde creates The Goldberg Variations with Platform-K, a leading company for dancers with disabilities. A thoroughly democratic project about the state of dance and society. Bach's beautiful music is played live on accordion(!) by Philippe Thuriot.
On 8 July, following the performance, there will be an aftertalk with Michiel Vandevelde moderated by Constant Meijers in the Pleinfoyer.
Location ITA
Venue Grote Zaal
Starting time 18:00, 20:30
Price 4th rank from €15.00 – 1st rank from €30.00
NL premiere
Literally democratic
Dancers Oskar Stalpaert, Michiel Vandevelde and Audrey Merilus get to work with the famous Goldberg Variations by Bach and the series of solos created to this music by dance innovator Steve Paxton in the 1980s. The choice of Paxton is not accidental. All of Vandevelde's performances are implicitly or explicitly about democracy. In the 1970s and 1980s, dance was radically renewed. Dance literally became democratic. It was freed from its classical straitjacket, rules and beauty ideals. The language of dance was opened up, everyone could participate. Vandevelde wonders what we can see of this now. And whether we can see the state of our democracy in dance.
-|-The content is also reflected in the form, both in dance and music. Just as minorities and outsiders have a voice in a true democracy, no one is excluded in Vandevelde's work. Dancer Oskar Stalpaert is a dancer with Down's syndrome. And so it is that Bach's composition is played by Philippe Thuriot on accordion. No mean feat. Thuriot: "The Goldberg Variations are extremely difficult to play on the accordion. What Bach wrote in one or two months took me two years to learn to play. Then you realise how small you are."
Julidans 2021 will also feature De Keersmaeker's version of The Goldberg Variations. In the Julidans Magazine, Annette Embrechts uses these two Goldberg Variations as the basis for an article about generations in dance and what they pass on to each other.
Michiel Vandevelde
Michiel Vandevelde studied dance and choreography at P.A.R.T.S., the dance school of Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker. He is artist in residence at the Kaaitheater in Brussels. His dance performances are a laboratory for the political imagination. In Protest 1980, for example, he put three generations of activists on stage. The Children's Parliament was a project on democracy with young people aged between 8 and 13 years. And Dances of Death is a time-travelling journey along rituals surrounding death in a search for new rites for these uncertain times.
Credits:
production Platform-K
co-production Vooruit and Kaap
choreography Michiel Vandevelde
dance Oskar Stalpaert, Michiel Vandevelde and Amanda Barrio Charmelo
music by Philippe Thuriot
dramaturgy Kristof van Baarle
scenography by Michiel Vandevelde, with the assistance of Tom Callemin
costumes Tutia Schaad
costume assistant Camil Krings
technical support Maxim Van Meerhaeghe, Ferre Carronen, Maarten Snoeck
lighting advice Tom Bruwier
with the support of the Flemish Government, National Lottery, City of Ghent, Konekt, the King Baudouin Foundation, Vlaams Cultuurhuis de Brakke Grond
with thanks to Campo and Kaaitheater
WITH COVID ADMISSION TICKET
To visit this performance you need a valid COVID admission ticket. This can be a negative test result, a vaccination certificate or proof that you have recovered from corona (proof of recovery). You must convert one of these into a QR code in the CoronaCheck app or a print via CoronaCheck.nl. Only then will you have a valid COVID admission ticket.
