Objectifs Danse 9, Day Two, Works In Progress

Charleroi Danse, Work In Progress, images not mine

Our afternoon, in the superbly remodelled Charleroi Danse centre starts with presentations. Five very distinct contemporary approaches, each with a different premise talk to us about their work, its intentions and the stage they have reached.  This afternoon we see five works in development, and I’m fascinated by the hints around each work’s creative process.

Stretch, originally created for and informed by the architectural space of the eponymous museum is becoming adapted to work in theatres showing lovely solo and group dynamics. Match a belachelijk Mornington Crescent of dance and spoken word – is a humorous and pithy observation of the ineluctable influence of free-market capitalism. Selk’Nord which uses two elements of the Chilean culture in a multicultural examination of disappearance felt worked more for me as a creative declaration of intent. But it’s early days, the piece is in development, and truth be told, as I see the chance of our country’s politicians choosing conscience and common sense over petty party politics disappear as if it never was, I’m probably overprojecting.

The extract we saw of Grand Tétras, a work that fuses the recovered movement vocabulary of dancer and gardener Jean Weidt into a contemporary setting with contemporary conceits and concerns, is as much spoken as moved, charmingly linear and engaging. Finally, Forces; which we are seeing without the lights that apparently make it, is a tight exploration of coordinated tensions.

For more, see for the DanceGRiST issue on dance in Brussels.