Both the American and the French choreographer began their careers in the s and are considered two of the most influential artists of their generation. In the work of these year-olds, dance history resonates — memories intertwine with imagination. In steal you for a momentMeg Stuart continues her collaboration with Francisco Camacho. The Portuguese performer danced in her first piece, and in she created the solo BLESSED for him, a work that dealt with the climate crisis. According to the program notes, the starting point for this duet was the Nuragic ruins in Sardinia — mysterious remnants of a vanished culture. However, none of this is visible on stage. Instead, objects made of plywood are scattered across the Radialsystem stage. What unfolds is a continual process of reconfiguration: the artifacts are shifted and rearranged. His body takes on the appearance of a fragile construct, and soon enough, the precarious little tower collapses. Amidst scenes of quiet humor, there are also tender moments. Despite the theme of impermanence, the dancers find solace in their friendship. Stuart and Camacho work together seamlessly. His angular movements give him the appearance of a comic book character at times, while her silver mane and melancholy air evoke the image of a sorrowful clown. When Camacho offers her a miniature pyramid as though it were a precious gift, she gazes at him, bewildered. The two play with their little forms like children in a sandbox, waving papyrus reeds, communicating in a secret sign language, and navigating through emotional landscapes. They are outstanding performers, but by the end, the duet loses its focus and veers into overly personal territory. The choreographers and dancers Meg Stuart and Francisco Camacho lose themselves performatively in their friendship in steal you for a moment. Inspiration is fleeting - it can be found everywhere, but its traces are lost. Choreographers and dancers Meg Stuart and Francisco Camacho sought inspiration for their creation steal you for a moment in Sardinia. The stone towers of the Bronze Age Nuragic culture reign there, mighty statues guarding gigantic tombs, with design elements such as spiral shapes. A pendulum hangs from the ceiling, sand is piled up and grasses are stuck to the back wall like a scrapbook. In this scenario, Stuart and Camacho — who met 35 years ago in New York, have been friends ever since and have worked together time and again — unearth emotional artifacts as if they were archaeological treasures. What is the artistic result of a friendship? How can we effectively present our private relationship on stage for others? There are no clear answers, steal you for a moment remains closed to us. At first, the US-American, who has lived in Berlin for 20 years, and the Portuguese, who runs a production house in Lisbon, perform without touching — sitting stiffly next to each other, toppling over like mannequins. Later, there is a comic duet of gestures and vocalizations, and Meg Stuart, who is a great comedian, scolds Camacho, who kindly hands her a pyramid as a gift. She excels at unexpected, surprising movements — as she carries in her body the result of decades of improvisation and exchange with other artists. Her movements are soft, not quite as elastic as they used to be, but lightning fast. When Camacho brings her a pile of sand, she looks stern, then suddenly turns one of the hollow forms around, transforming it from a sculpture to a sand mold. He is always on stage himself, building landscapes out of wooden figurines or projecting a laser grid across the action, which creates a maze of green lines that slowly tilts to one side. At some point, Meg Stuart briefly makes contact with the audience, not all of whom stay until the end. You can tell from the laughter how grateful everyone is for this moment that breaks through the devout contemplation of art. In the end, when Stuart and Camacho lie on their backs and send an Gefilterd Water Bedrijf Huren dialogue into the room - I was in love with you when we first met, she says; this is how friendship can begin, he replies - the audience is once again left out. They can compare their own ideas of intimacy and mutual success with a performance in which two exceptional artists have remained completely wrapped up in themselves and away from Gefilterd Water Bedrijf Huren. This might be because so little is known about the prehistoric culture of the Mediterranean—today, we mostly know about the Nuragic tower structures built around BC on Sardinia, though their exact function remains a mystery. In this way, the reference makes sense: it is only through architectural remnants that Gefilterd Water Bedrijf Huren can glean anything about that ancient culture. Vanishing lines are drawn on the floor and walls, a pendulum swings from the ceiling, and mounds of sand give rise to small pyramids shaped using wooden templates. The choreographers offer no explanations, instead maintaining a deliberate restraint. They step onto the stage quietly, without fanfare, moving slowly into the space, whimpering, slurring their speech. Gradually, recognizable movement patterns emerge: the swinging of arms echoes the motion of the pendulum, an outstretched leg aligns with the vanishing lines on the wall. Throughout the performance, electronic sounds hum through the space, like erratically tuned radio waves. You catch fleeting snatches of meaning—a brief melody, a fragment of dialogue—only for it to vanish just as quickly. At one point, the room goes dark, and the two performers don headlamps, suddenly evoking scientists navigating uncharted terrain—archaeologists in a landscape of symbols. Then, after about half an hour, the nature of the piece shifts.
In CASCADE Stuart constantly seems to stretch the moment of hesitation — the first phase of the three-stage movement — like a film that malfunctions. But, of course, Stuart carries a heavy legacy, she has a big, big name, and proving herself anew over the decades is certainly a great challenge. The carefulness, the viscous resistance against risk and loss of control, also shows in the jerky, uncoordinated and restrained movements the performers make throughout the piece, on or next to the ramp. The dancers are on the ground. Voor zijn lezingen verzamelt Wouters doorgaans een enigszins willekeurige verzameling beelden van zijn werk.
