Thierry Smits has already completed quite a journey. Today he is a reference point in the Belgian contemporary dance scene. Over the past 25 years, he has built a consistent body of work that colors outside the lines. His creations – alternating between pure dance performances and performative pieces – explore our relationship with our body in all possible facets: solo and in groups.
Since he started his company Compagnie Thor in 1990, he has created more than 30 productions that are presented not only in his own country, but throughout Europe, America, the Middle East and Africa. For this spectacle he recruited 11 men from Germany, Poland, Portugal, Brazil, France, Great Britain and Belgium. Not for their technical virtuosity, but because each of them shows an interest in the study of movement. Anima Ardens is a performance about solidarity, togetherness. It is also a metaphor for society. We come into the world and disappear again. Dance and theater are ephemeral art forms par excellence. An image is shown, moments later nothing remains of it: it has vanished, gone, elusive. What is shown is a utopian longing for togetherness. The 11 men perform largely naked. They also all have a different skin color, cultural background and dance training. Everyone is different, everyone is unique. From diversity, something is built. Thierry Smits strives not only for beautiful images, but especially for the generation of energy. This creates a group dynamic.
Décor and soundscape
The dancers are waiting for the audience on stage, hidden behind softly falling white cloths that contrast sharply with the black backdrop. Only the lower legs are visible. It has something ghostly about it. It is not intentional, but it fits perfectly with the atmosphere around Halloween. The dancers are in turn spectators. They observe the audience as it unhurriedly finds its seat. When the house lights dim, the performers gradually get going. They search for their place in the space on a strange sound sculpture that is difficult to put your finger on. What exactly is it? It reminds you of the crunching sound of millstones grinding together, supplemented with industrial sounds, the monotonous sound of a conveyor belt. One step at a time, eleven men shuffle forward, to the left and right, lean forward and backward. They gradually separate from each other and the cloths slip from their bodies.
Anima Ardens is built around two opposite poles: chaos and structure, individuality versus group dynamics. The exploration of the body's possibilities is fully exhausted, boundaries pushed without artistic compromise. The human without artifice. Thierry Smits makes a round-up of all life on earth: there are glimpses of images from fauna and flora. Our early ancestors who walked on hands and feet and thunder across the stage at breakneck speed, the graceful waving of reed stems. As the performance progresses, the dancers seek more connection with each other. With ingenious inventions and a flood of alternating images, pairs are formed in the most bizarre constellations. Cloths are brought back with which a central dancer is wrapped, from which the shamanic ritual of the whirling dervish emerges. Visually a beautiful image with the swirling cloths. Those cloths end up on the ground. On the white floor they look like piles of mushrooms. The dancers form a living bridge that everyone climbs over and ultimately becomes part of the construction themselves. Gradually the structure falls apart. The bodies form a circle on the ground. With legs spread it looks like a sun, moments later the torsos spring up and you get the image on your retina of a flower whose sepals open to the warm sunlight. On the continuous pulse of the music, formations are created in utmost concentration, compelling, with murderous sequences for the dancers before gradually coming to a standstill.
Anima Ardens, a choreography with audacity and daring, full of intense physical energy in a span of seventy minutes.
- WHAT: Anima Ardens
- WHO: Compagnie Thor | Thierry Smits
- WHERE: cultuurcentrum Westrand, Dilbeek
- WHEN: Thursday 25 October 2018