Category Archives: _____

NEW WORK – FOR MATA WITH LOVE

TRY OUT SERIES
30 -31 okt. 1- 2th of  nov. SALON RADICAL KORTRIJK
8-9th of  nov.  KADOC LEUVEN
15th  of nov. CC DE VERVERIJ RONSE
 
 
Creation 25/26 — For Mata, With Love
The Courage of Beauty
A reading of an iconic figure
 
In her work around Mata Hari, Pé Vermeersch explores the tragedy and complexity of a woman who used her own body as power, as language, as mystery — and who may have been killed and sacrificed because of it. The erotic force that Mata Hari embodied was both her strength and her downfall. Vermeersch approaches this figure not as a myth or a seductress, but as an embodied tension between freedom and desire. Here, Mata Hari is first and foremost seen as a compelling dancer and a ‘mother of performing art.’ Vermeersch delves deeply into the qualities of her performances. In this sense, the piece is a tribute to Mata Hari, not as a spy or courtesan, but as a dancer.
 
By empathically stepping into the physicality of Mata Hari — not through historical reconstruction, but through inner resonance — Vermeersch brings forth the question: What does it mean, as a woman, to embody your body in a world that seeks to possess, define, or condemn it?
 
Within this context, the erotic dimension of her work takes on an explicitly political character. Not because the body presents itself to seduce, but because it appears independently, in its own sensory power. The body is not an object, but a subject of intensity. It refuses to serve as a symbol for what the outside world wants to read into it, and instead claims the space to feel, to exist, to disappear.
In our contemporary society, it is precisely this kind of body — a body that feels, refuses, transforms — that continues to be targeted, projected upon, and controlled. It is essential that these bodies be liberated from the gaze that confines, exoticizes, or condemns them.
 
Where Mata Hari’s body may have been sacrificed on the altar of fear and desire, Vermeersch uses performance as a space to reclaim that body — not as an icon, but as a breathing, sensing, autonomous organism. In that choice lies a powerful act of resistance and restoration: a body that reveals its eroticism without surrendering to the gaze, that feels rather than poses, that asserts its presence through intensity and surrender, not through representation.
 
With  Angela Babuin as protagonist
 
Mira Walschot and Pé Vermeersch as chorus
 
Setting made by the collective radical hearts
 
Costumes Anita Evenepoel
 
Original soundscore  by  Georges Dedecker and Alissa Cardone

COLLECTIVE

Met Radical HeArts zetten we al jaren in op het ervaringsgerichte lichaam. De ‘doorleefde lijf’ zetten we in als communicatiemiddel: voor mens, natuur, dier, kunst en samenleving. Doorheen diepe zintuigelijke waarneming en sensibiliteit kunnen we, wars van culturele verschillen, elkaar beter begrijpen en verbinding maken. Doorheen het gevoelige lichaam kunnen we echt transcultureel zijn.
 
We maken internationale voorstellingen en tentoonstellingen, voor de klassieke scène, musea, historische en natuurlijke sites. We werken evenzeer lokaal vanuit onze werkplaats Salon Radical. We koesteren erfgoed en traditie maar ook het radicale experiment. We koesteren het lichaam als ruwe diamant en bieden tools om een fragiel en zintuigelijk lichaam te trainen, zowel voor de professionele als niet-professionele danser. Voor jong en zeker voor oud.
 
Omdat we dans als communicatie zien, zijn improvisatie en direct intuïtief handelen van groot belang. Het lichaam als gevoelsgids biedt nieuwe dans, verbindt ons met andere kunstvormen en is evengoed een tool in het dagelijkse leven. Kennis en vertrouwen in ieders lichaam bevordert empathie. Een respectvolle connectie met het lichaam ontneemt angst en onzekerheid en verlegt grenzen.

DOORNTUIN / GARDEN OF THORNS

ENCOUNTERS

A FORMLESS FORM

WAT WEEFT IN MIJ?

WATCH OUT ! DANCERS !

BLONDES HAVE NO SOUL

“This kind of spectacle, so original, creative, elegiac, multidisciplinary, so wholly different of contemporary dance  and of the complete theatre history of the past centuries that another word than ‘dance’ should be invented to describe this performance, unless ‘dance’ comprises every truly living spectacle”.

(Jean-Gabriel NANCEY, Effet d’art: nudité, enfin!, in Danse. European dance news (Paris), n°270, 2012, p. 55)

 

‘Mijn oog wordt mijn oor,mijn oor mijn neus, mijn neus mijn mond.Mijn geest is heel en mijn lichaam lost op.Gebeente en vlees smelten…Ik word weggeblazen, oost en west…Berijdt de wind mij of ik de wind ?’ (Lieh Tzu)

 

Blondes have no soul dance for silence and whiteness, solo.   no stop work Since 2002

CONCEPT                                      PRESS 

 

Support for ‘Blondes have no soul’ in 2000, date of its creation

Kyoto Art Center: Artist in residence; Bunka-cho (Japanese Ministery of Culture); Flemish Ministery of Culture; City of Ghent.

 

MAKING THE SKIES MOVE

Dance for piano, duo (2011)

 

‘Contrary to the organ, the piano appears to me to be much more a ‘spatial’ than a ‘physical’ instrument. That feeling is choreographically elaborated. With ‘Making the skies move’ I explore invisible layers in space. I imagine how, with each movement and with each musical note, invisible particles are moved through the layers of space. Gently I slice through the space. From bottom to top, from dark to light. The dance originates in breathing resistant mass, trying to find, through a circular motion, an almost endless projection in space’ (Pé Vermeersch).

Making the move skies, version 2011 / Messiaen

Invisable layers become sensible / from brown down to yellow up / the necessity of dissonance in beauty

In this version for the scene (2011) Pé worked only with the piano music of Olivier Messiaen. Piano music so rarely heard and even fewer times put in relation to dance. Dancers and pianist look for a fragile, almost etheric beauty arising from a shifting and dissonantly grounded feeling so typical of the compositions of Messiaen.

Alongside the superb playing  of Jan Michiels, seven works of Messiaen become dances, both choreographed and improvised. The piano music is alternated by a minimalist soundscape by Ludo Engels. This work is the first piece which is sometimes choreographed , in collaboration with Angela Babuin, in a strict syncronised way, as opposed to the more organic choreographies in ‘ It Organs/the body’

‘Making the skies move’ is also an installation, a visual work already initiated in 2008 and elaborated with a wider selection of piano music. (see section mixed media). The installation is elaborated here in a scenographical way and consists of a multitude of three-dimensional, wooden frames, sometimes empty, and sometimes filled with painted white particles and creatures. In a naive and tender way it tries to hold what dance and music try to move : the skies.

‘Making the skies move’ can be perceived also as a danced concert with lots of space for the musician’s implementation. In a next version I would like to enlarge the piano repertoire with other contemporary composers without losing the idea of ‘making the skies move’ … Making the skies move is visually always connected to the original installation.

Dance: Angela Babuin, Petra Sandra Vermeersch
Choreography and installation: Pé Vermeersch
Assistance: Angela Babuin
Piano: Jan Michiels
Soundscape: Ludo Engels
Light: Koen Moerman
Photography of the performance : Julie Jones

Performances 2011 :

Belgium : CC De Spil Roeselare, CC De Adelberg Lommel, CC De Brouwerij Ronse

France : L’Avant-Seine / Théâtre de Colombes, Colombes, Paris, France 

PERFORMING & ART STUDIO

SALON RADICAL  is the working space of  Radical HeArts and locate in the centrum  of  Kortrijk.  As well the historical salon of the 19 th century as the weaving atelier dating 1930 offers a beautiful setting  for expositions and small performances and workshops.  We host a  permanent collection of  Berber Rugs  which are regularly shown. 

www.salonradical. be   www.vandenbroeckart.be

DORST - poetry & dance

BLAUW - teken van de nacht

ADEMROOD - RED OXYGEN

DESERTSCAPE

PREGNANCY LEVEL 8

ENCOUNTERS

18/5/2017 ➔ 20/8/2017
ENCOUNTERS – A danced expo
Radical HeArts / KMSKA in MAS

 

photos  Luc De Preitere  /  Yourt

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Ontmoetingen / Encounters is een transculturele en transmediale tentoonstelling/gebeuren/performance waarin de kunstwerken in clusters of golven worden samengebracht : soms op grond van hun energetisch-esthetische overeenkomst of gelijkenis, soms op grond van een spanning tussen werken van uiteenlopende herkomst.

Deze manifestatie is laagdrempelig in die zin dat géén culturele voorkennis wordt vereist en dat er geen woordelijk discours moet ‘begrepen’ worden. De bemiddeling tussen tentoongestelde werken en toeschouwer is ervaringsgericht en gebeurt via het lichaam van de performers en doorheen de eigen intuïtie van het publiek. Het langdurige theoretische onderzoek dat aan de expo voorafging vindt zijn neerslag in een boek A glimpse of the concealed. Body – intuition – art (BAI Publishers) dat verscheen naar aanleiding van het gebeuren.

  • Click here for more information about the choreographic circuit.
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