Foreshadow
After VanThorhout, in which Alexander Vantournhout appeared solo on stage, Not Standing returns with a group show featuring eight acrobat-dancers. The performers move like gears of a collective body to the tunes of experimental rock music. Together they explore quasi-impossible balances, challenge each other and defy gravity.
With the tightly orchestrated chaotic movement landscapes of Foreshadow, Alexander Vantournhout takes a new step in his exploration of the relationships between gravity, movement, balance, and spatiality. In addition to the floor, which played a prominent role in SCREWS and Through the Grapevine, the wall now also becomes a dance partner.
Coproduction: le CENTQUATRE, Paris (FR), Kunstencentrum VIERNULVIER, Ghent (BE), Julidans, Amsterdam (NL), Biennale de la Danse, Lyon (FR), Le Maillon, Strasbourg (FR), Les Halles de Schaerbeek (BE), MA scène nationale – Pays de Montbéliard (FR), La Passerelle, scène nationale de Saint-Brieuc (FR), Theater Freiburg (DE) & Le Carreau Scène nationale de Forbach et de l’Est mosellan (FR).
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Not Standing
Alexander Vantournhout- Genre: Dance/Circus
- World premiere: 2-3 Julidans Amsterdam 2023
- Direction: Alexander Vantournhout
- Creation & performance: Noémi Devaux, Axel Guérin, Patryk Klos, Nick Robaey, Josse Roger/Mats Oosterveld, Emmi Väisänen/Margaux Lissandre, Esse Vanderbruggen & Alexander Vantournhout/Chia-Hung Chung
- Coproduction: le CENTQUATRE, Parijs (FR), Kunstencentrum VIERNULVIER, Gent (BE), Julidans, Amsterdam (NL), Biennale de la Danse, Lyon (FR), Le Maillon, Strasbourg (FR), De Hallen van Schaarbeek (BE), MA scène nationale – Pays de Montbéliard (FR), La Passerelle, scène nationale de Saint-Brieuc (FR), Theater Freiburg (DE) & Le Carreau Scène nationale de Forbach et de l'Est mosellan (FR).
"You can’t believe how bodies intertwine in the most impossible positions.”
Theaterkrant
“For Alexander Vantournhout, human bodies become intricate mechanics. By interconnecting two or more of these mechanical systems and deftly manipulating the precise position of limbs and joints, he crafts extraordinary human sculptures.”
Het Parool
"At the exciting point of almost falling or not, Alexander Vantournhout and his team discover moments of equilibrium that appear utterly impossible at first glance, and even upon closer look."
Het Parool
"Bold, acrobatic and intensely physical in every confrontation and formation again."
Tanznetz
"Very slowly, the performers execute the most intense choreographies, relying solely on their physical strength and that of each other."
pzazz
“The shapes created by the eight exceptional performers with their intertwined bodies are fascinating and remarkably inventive.”
NRC
"Since his first creations, Vantournhout has been inspired by 'locomotions' - corridors of movement - from the animal kingdom. From the wrist joint of a gibbon (which rotates exactly like our shoulder) to the circular symmetry of an octopus, starfish, jellyfish, or sea anemone. Not by imitating the animal characteristic, as that is impossible from a human perspective, but by incorporating them in his movement language in a slightly different way."
de Volkskrant
“It’s amazing to see how Alexander Vantournhout has mastered a new movement technique with every performance. Few choreographers have turned the abc of dance upside-down and expanded it as much as he has in recent years.”
**** De Standaard
“Foreshadow is a hypnotizing show, breathtakingly perfect and controlled. The almost impossible yet human acrobatics seem to continuously surprise even the dancers themselves.”
**** Le Soir
“People magically stick to the wall, crawl on it, with skills that would make Spider-Man jealous.”
De Morgen
"Supported by each other's shoulders, feet, and knees, the dancers crawl over the wall like salamanders. As if they are floating. It defies all physical logic, yet it turns out to be simply ingenious human work."
**** De Standaard
“Duos push each other horizontally into the air, sometimes balancing on just one foot or hand. Shiva goddesses, the pendulum of a clock, a cartoonish creature with one head and two pairs of legs, flower buds that open, kaleidoscopic animations…”
**** De Standaard
"Foreshadow feels a bit like watching a documentary by David Attenborough, but with the human species in the leading role. Not only because of the many references to the animal kingdom, but also because Vantournhout here shows that our body is only a premonition of what it could be."
**** De Standaard
“Performances by Alexander Vantournhout are always two things at once. They are a dance-technical research into what determines or limits human movement: length, depth, weight, difference. On the other hand, if you want, you can always read an existential message.”
De Morgen
“What's fascinating is not just the virtuosity of this 'wall acrobatics' or the dance research into verticality, but also the change of perspective that the sometimes absurd body images yield.”
De Morgen
“At the same time acrobatic, poetic, and playful, Foreshadow is an indefinable, indescribable show that you really must see to believe. A magical moment where trust in the other allows you to go further and further. What a delight!”
**** le Soir
“Foreshadow is a sequence of magnificent, human wall sculptures.”
**** Het Nieuwsblad
“Between the wall scenes, the dancers always manage to find each other – sometimes, due to the shadows, they appear to be more than just eight – to entangle themselves with one another. It sometimes seems random, and the music of This Heat, an experimental avant-garde rock band from the 70s, reinforces that feeling. But behind it all is a strong choreography: the eight never have to look for each other on stage. They know exactly what to do.”
**** Het Nieuwsblad
“Foreshadow once again confirms Vantournhout's talent and manages, by the addition of the wall, to still surprise. Impressive.”
**** Het Nieuwsblad
"The movement language is so inventive, smart and refreshing that there is an effortless sense of humour in the simplest of movements. Vantournhout’s long research into the grey zone between circus and dance has provided him so much knowledge on how humans (can) move, on the gravitational forces that work into it, paying off in each of his new works with exhilarating and unique dance vocabulary. "
Springback Magazine
"Erfreulich ist, dass sich Vantournhout aber nicht auf das effektvolle Vorführen einzelner Kunststücke verlässt, sondern den Abend in durchaus anmutige Bilder kleidet, die bei aller eingesetzten Muskelkraft auch berühren können: Erstaunlich, was alles möglich ist, wenn man sich nur gegenseitig stützt."
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