Michiel Vandevelde

         ‘Dances of Death’ is a physically intense performance with seven dancers and one singer. We encounter a community coming together on stage to commemorate death. The performers evoke a ritual in which they 'time travel' through different associations to dances of death, from the distant past to more recent history. Building upon the ashes of the past, they dance, they breathe, they cry, they laugh, they sing, in a cycle between life and death.

         The dance material is based on three short 16mm videos that choreographer Michiel Vandevelde inherited from his mother. Her dance consists of movements with influences from social, folkloristic, and modern dances.

         In the 21^st century the notion of ‘death’ is yet again very present. New incurable diseases are haunting us, suicide rates are increasing yearly, climate change calls forth images of apocalypses. How can we cope with the idea of death? In ‘Dances of Death’ the quest is to physically cope with death through dance. How would a dance of death be danced today?


Presentations:

— 29 April 2023, CC Sint-Niklaas, Sint-Niklaas (BE)

— 6 October 2022, CC De Werf, Aalst (BE)

— 7 & 8 July 2022, Festival de la Cité, Lausanne (CH)

— 4 December 2021, December Dance 2021, Magdalenazaal, Brugge (BE)

— 5, 6, 7 November 2021, Moving in November, Helsinki (FI)

— 1 October 2021, Leietheater, Deinze (BE)

— 23 & 24 September 2021, Stuk, Leuven (BE)

— 2 July 2021, outdoor version for Dansand, Ostend (BE)

— LIVE PREMIERE: 12 & 13 June 2021, Kaaitheater, Brussels (BE)

— ONLINE PREMIERE: 20 Februari 2021, Podium-19/VRT.NU