Vessel
“I want to address the energy we had in the womb, that primal energy of our very first breath,” so says choreographer Damien Jalet. He and visual artist Kōhei Nawa have, together with a group of seven dancers, created a fascinating and visually stunning work, based on the contradictions of the body.
hall: Rabozaal
duration: to be determined
language no problem
The primal energy of our very first breath.
Choreographer Damien Jalet and visual artist Kōhei Nawa have, together with a group of seven dancers, created a fascinating and visually stunning work, based on the contradictions of the body, between regeneration and decay, between solid and fluid, between anatomy and mythology. With a stage design consisting of literally liquid forms, they try to create a dynamic amalgamation between the stage and the bodies of the dancers. The music is by composer Marihiko Hara.
Anyone who sees Vessel, penetrates to the core of an emerging matter as if under hypnosis, observes from the inside organic processes that take shape in a moving, primitive mass. In this, each performer - according to the words of Georges Bataille – 'combines Birth and Death in the same outburst. He is not a man. Neither is he a god.'
Damien Jalet started his career in 1998 as a dancer with Wim Vandekeybus. He often engages in multidisciplinary partnerships. For example, for Babel (words) he worked with Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, for Les Médusés with thirty artists in the Louvre in Paris. And at the invitation of the Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben, he provided the choreography for the contemporary opera Il cielo sulla terra by Stefano Scodanibbio for the Stuttgart Opera. He also collaborated on Suspiria (2018), a horror film by Luca Guadagnino with, among others, Tilda Swinton and Dakota Johnson.
De Frans-Belgische choreograaf en danser Damien Jalet begon zijn loopbaan als danser bij Wim Vandekeybus. Naast theater studeerde hij etnomusicologie en polyfonische zang. Hij legt in zijn werk vaak complexe banden tussen dans en andere kunstvormen zoals beeldende kunst, mode, theater en muziek. Jalet gaat vaak multidiscplinaire samenwerkingsverbanden aan. Voor Babel(words) werkte hij samen met Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, voor Les Médusés met dertig dertig kunstenaars in het Louvre in het Parijs. En op uitnodiging van de Italiaanse filosoof Giorgio Agamben verzorgde hij de choreografie voor de hedendaagse opera Il cielo sulla terra van Stefano Scodanibbio voor de Opera van Stuttgart.
In 2013 kreeg Jalet de titel van Chevalier de l’Ordre des arts et des lettres. Tot zijn meest recente werken behoren THR(O)UGH voor het Hessisches Staatsballett en Babel 7.16 (Festival d’Avignon). Hij was guest artistic director van de UK National Youth Dance Company (2016-2017) en creëerde in 2017 Skid voor de Göteborgs Operans
Danskompani. Ook werkte hij mee aan Suspiria (2018), een horrofilm van Luca Guadagnino met onder andere Tilda Swinton en Dakota Johnson.