Golden Label Nomination - Wim Vandekeybus, founder and driving force of Ultima Vez, continually reinvents himself. No pigeonholing for him, nor paralyzing comfort. TrapTown takes you on a thrilling journey into an intriguing world full of dance mythology, toward a parallel universe where theater and music, image and sound, dance and word merge.
With his visual eagle's eye, he fully showcases his talents as a filmmaker, choreographer and director. The resilient dance language of Vandekeybus remains, as always, full of risk and conflict. This production speaks of an extraordinary sense of space, thanks in part to the input of the architect duo Gijs Van Vaerenberg, known for the artwork 'Study for a Windmill' in Itterbeek as part of De Blik van Bruegel and the transparent chapel 'Reading between the lines' in Borgloon and the corten steel labyrinth created for C-Mine in Genk. Artwork that is incorporated into this production.
The corridors seem filmed from above like a busy beehive or from an ordinary perspective like the passageways of a castle, or the narrow alleys of a city where characters make love in obscure corners, gather together or run for their lives. The movement dynamics come from the cinematic soundtrack of Trixie Whitley and the Brussels band Phoenician Drive. The skilled text material by writer, filmmaker and theater maker Pieter De Buysser gives it all context. He rides the waves of history. Religion and nationalism form the most toxic mixture. All talent from home soil to be proud of. Conceptually, Wim Vandekeybus creates an incredibly clever spectacle in which intelligent play and the stylized precision of the filmic material and the dancers come together. It becomes a fascinating and mesmerizing whole.
From A to Z
The action starts on the forestage with a girl who is clearly at odds with herself. The curtain rises. The set looks sober and futuristic. TrapTown begins quite playfully. A woman comes out of an elevator, centrally positioned. A man appears slightly behind her. Like a gentleman, he offers her passage and says 'After you'. That becomes a playful verbal duel, ironic yet lighthearted. Meanwhile, the other dancers appear on stage and position themselves in a line on the forestage. The back wall becomes an immense panoramic film screen. A large beehive where people swarm. The eight dancers, in multicolored abundance, stand like puppet limbs watching the world rush past.
Then TrapTown unfolds like a gigantic parable, laden with spiritual unrest, lyrical yet also feverish. World history in a nutshell passes by in an hour and a half and is full of contradictions: power and deception, rise and fall, slavery and domination, triumphs and defeats, ingenuity versus recklessness. Humanity as a plaything of fate and rulers endowed with pragmatic life views and sharp minds. Vandekeybus translates all of this boldly and intuitively, strongly, fluidly at a furious pace. In the dance and movement language, he draws from other cultures that pass fragmentarily: capoeira, Tai Chi, Indian Greek and Russian national dance styles are combined into one pattern. What happens with the visual material is astounding and fascinating. A bombardment of image, music, dance completely attuned to each other and finely tuned with a wonderful sense of space in a machinery of energy and synergy. The world of yesterday and today mirrored and transformed. Also the contribution of Trixie Whitley, on drums, guitar or as a Gatsby figure from the roaring twenties with an old microphone in singing curves that rise and fall, gives the production extra body and depth. TrapTown is a high-flyer in every respect, not only as a multimedia artwork but also what the dancers perform with death-defying stunts is fabulous and the music that propels it all in an energetic display. That balance requires balanced contradictory forces. TrapTown is a cross-pollination of different art forms: architecture, word, film, music, dance… that meet each other, strengthen and produce a remarkable result full of breathtaking moments.
- WHAT: TrapTown
- WHO: direction, film and choreography Wim Vandekeybus, created with and
- performed by Maria KO-legova, Tanja Marin Friõjónsdótter,
- Kristina Alleyne, Sade Alleyne, Kit King, Flavio d'Andrea,
- Alexandros Anastasiadis, Muffutau Yusef
- Text: Pieter de Buysser
- Music: Trixie Whitley & Phoenician Drive
- Scenography: Wim Vandekeybus & Gijs Van Varenbergh
- Costume design: Isabelle Ihoas
- Sound design: Charo Calvo & Bram Moriau
- WEBSITE: www.ultimavez.be
- WHERE & WHEN: Thursday 19 September at CC Westrand Dilbeek
- PHOTOS: © Danny Willems and © Filip Claessens
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