We, the breath
In WE, the BREATH, choreographers Emio Greco and Pieter C. Scholten go in search of a new world, from that what connects us more than anything else, our breath. They do this together with us, the audience – we step back and move towards 'a breath of fresh air', to relaxation and slowing down. With – literally and figuratively – more air as a result.
Julidans Extended
Run time 105 minutes
Location Westbeat
We, the breath
We breathe automatically. It is an automatism that we do not often think about, although it is so essential. In our hectic society, we are gradually running out of breath due to a (too) high social tempo. Spurred on by the current events of Covid 19, #BlackLivesMatter, the climate crisis and the 'weary' society, the experience of our breathing space has become more and more urgent. What can we do against shortness of breath, suffocation, and breathlessness? What will it take to change the world?
The choreographers Emio Greco and Pieter C. Scholten have been working together since 1996. They missed a place in the dance landscape for what they called ‘the Intuitive Body’. In the meantime, the duo has developed their own dance vocabulary, based on the physical, intuitive impulses of the body. Each movement has its own logic, with breathing as the key. In their work, improvisation is obvious: the dancers attune their movements to each other's energy and breathing.
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The ‘Rebelling Body’ refers to the body that is tired of multi-tasking and the urge to perform, which leads to stress and burnouts. People have lost contact with their bodies. For ICK, the body is curious, pioneering, social, and sensitive to social changes. WE, the BREATH is therefore closely related to their earlier work.
WE, the BREATH is the first performance in the WE cycle, in which ICK goes in search of new ways of experiencing time, new ways of connecting with each other. Let us no longer allow our precious breath to be determined by chronological clock time – haste, the feeling of having our lives lived for us, overstrain, burnout – but by inner time, the time we really experience. Or, in the words of the choreographer duo: "Let us surrender together to the universal ‘breathe in’ and ‘breathe out’."
Reviews
NRC
'Gorgeous dance duet raises uncomfortable questions'
Credits
Concept & choreography Emio Greco | Pieter C. Scholten
Dancers Denis Bruno, Beatrice Cardone, Maria Ribas, Victor Swank, Hiroki Nunogaki, Sixtine Biron, Fleur De Schepper, Dennis van Herpen
Dramaturgy Florian Hellwig
Lighting design Henk Danner
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Video Robin Coop
Costumes Clifford Portier
Sound design Pieter C. Scholten
Additional sound design and editing Salvador Breed
