Poni turns its guns on theatre. The key words in this performance are Ritual, Illusion and Death. How does one dismantle the rituals and obsessions of theatre? And what remains of classical themes, codes and tricks? What is the point of those curtains? What if the theatre itself does a striptease? And what illusions do we cling to, no matter what the price?

Themes: Death illusion and ritual
This triptych was absorbed, chewed and worked on by all members of the collective. This way, sub themes are created like circus, fairytales, memories/memory, religion, tennis, photography.
In short, Poni is engaged in a duel with theatre in a hybrid work that combines performance art, live rock music, dance and theatre.

A grinding wheel with a big steel L hangs from the ceiling. When the disc starts to turn, the L twirls round uncontrolled. The motor races but still tries to find its equilibrium, still tries to function despite the strangeness of the situation. However the machine does not succeed. It starts to take on the appearance of a classical hero in distress, with movement making the situation become more and more unbearable.

Poni turns its guns on theatre. The key words in this performance are Ritual, Illusion and Death. How does one dismantle the rituals and obsessions of theatre? And what remains of classical themes, codes and tricks? What is the point of those curtains? What if the theatre itself does a striptease? And what illusions do we cling to, no matter what the price?

Themes: Death illusion and ritual
This triptych was absorbed, chewed and worked on by all members of the collective. This way, sub themes are created like circus, fairytales, memories/memory, religion, tennis, photography.
In short, Poni is engaged in a duel with theatre in a hybrid work that combines performance art, live rock music, dance and theatre.

The art of falling

A nimble body in the void, suspended in the air as the centre of the universe. Incomplete wings, which overcome gravity for a split second. The triumphant plunge, before the final, fatal embrace. What goes on in the head of a person falling? In that short instant, in that eternity, between heaven and earth? Forever Overhead: is the first performance by Lisbeth Gruwez, who has been remarkable in productions by Jan Fabre, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and Jan Lauwers. Forever Overhead shows the body out of balance and is a physical drawing about the art of falling.

The art of falling

A nimble body in the void, suspended in the air as the centre of the universe. Incomplete wings, which overcome gravity for a split second. The triumphant plunge, before the final, fatal embrace. What goes on in the head of a person falling? In that short instant, in that eternity, between heaven and earth? Forever Overhead: is the first performance by Lisbeth Gruwez, who has been remarkable in productions by Jan Fabre, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and Jan Lauwers. Forever Overhead shows the body out of balance and is a physical drawing about the art of falling.

A new way of experiencing the city. Get to know and understand the surfaces on which you walk. The walkers will be seen as performers. Any on-looker will be the public.

1) Some different aspects of the installation HEART : A man and a woman are connected to each other with a rope, a steal cable, between them a ‘winch’, she stands in front of the audience, he on a ladder behind the curtains: when he jumps, she is pulled backwards 9m and 4m high and smashes against a wall. The man is invisible to the woman, but sometimes she felt when he wanted to jump.

2) The structure of the classical ‘pas de deux’: from this heavily coded material different movements will be distilled.

DESCRIPTION
A man and woman are in a situation of absolute mutual dependence. As opposed to the situation in HEART man and woman are visible for each other. They execute their dance movements in a live loop. These movements will be deconstructed and mechanically manipulated. The machine pushes them to repeat perfectly; for which they inevitably have to trust each other. They are left to each other.

Wanneer u Het Lichaamshof bezoekt, kan u zich voor de duur van een verhaal onderdompelen in de geheime wereld van een hut, een afgesloten plek die onderdak biedt aan het erotisch-apocalyptisch spel van twee jonge meisjes, teruggaand op spookbeelden uit de kindertijd.
Het Lichaamshof is een onbekend territorium, een plek waar de leugen van een verhaal een hallucinatie wordt, waar de leugen de waarheid lijkt te zeggen, waar deze waarheid troost biedt en het gevoel geeft te leven. Het leven als een spel, waar men voor het genot het risico neemt van pijn te hebben, waar men om vrolijk te zijn het risico neemt van gek te worden.
De installatie Het Lichaamshof is een no man’s land waarvan de bewoners voor zichzelf een wereld hebben geconstrueerd met als enige referentiepunt de hut zelf.

The art of falling

A nimble body in the void, suspended in the air as the centre of the universe. Incomplete wings, which overcome gravity for a split second. The triumphant plunge, before the final, fatal embrace. What goes on in the head of a person falling? In that short instant, in that eternity, between heaven and earth? Forever Overhead: is the first performance by Lisbeth Gruwez, who has been remarkable in productions by Jan Fabre, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and Jan Lauwers. Forever Overhead shows the body out of balance and is a physical drawing about the art of falling.

Exploding lights, smoking dance.
Or a multitude of vertigos.

The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up.
Revelation 8:7

DESCRIPTION

A rain of fire. In a dark space little drops of fire fall from the ceiling into water. At first sight the drops look like fireflies falling from the sky. Little blue lights appear and disappear in total blackness.

BASIC ASSUMPTION

RAIN is the first installation of a series with the basic assumption “the end of the world” in different variations: -The apocalypse as a Christian idea, with strong surrealistic images. Or reality: the climate changes due to pollution. Mankind has evolved into a stranger in his own natural environment.

The installation itself is a difficult balance between the controlled machine and a device in the verge of catching fire. This is where the installation finds his poetic power.

Sterven in Stijl (To die in style) is a solo by Hans Bryssinck and Dolores Bouckaert. Sterven in Stijl shows an actress wandering round between various scenes that increasingly head for her death: fragments of memories, lost loves and a last confession.

A performer positions herself like a fakir on a bed of long iron spikes placed at a distance of 4cm from each other. Microphones are placed where the body touches the spikes to register the sound of the suspended body, and also create a larger supporting surface.

Like a fakir the performer manages to obtain her position through a state of deep meditation. And meditation suggests: transcending, crossing the border of a-conscious state to non-conscious state of being, from the active to the passive. Meditation also implies a “surrendering” through which we are able to use energy, normally spend on the fight against proper “schizophrenia”, for transformation.

BASIC ASSUMPTION: THE HUMAN BATTERY
On 30 th of June 2004 under ‘US Patent 6, 754,472’ the American Company Microsoft patented human energy. The patent protects: a method and apparatus for transmitting power and data using the human body (…), as a conductive medium over which power and/or data is distributed. The physical resistance offered by the human body could be used to create a virtual keyboard on a patch of skin. According to the patent, the intent is to reduce device redundancy for people carrying multiple devices, such as a phone, headset, handheld, and wristwatch that all include a speaker…

Sterven in Stijl (To die in style) is a solo by Hans Bryssinck and Dolores Bouckaert. Sterven in Stijl shows an actress wandering round between various scenes that increasingly head for her death: fragments of memories, lost loves and a last confession.

Crystalll was originally created as a black box performance,
referring directly to the history of stage representations of female
bodies, and using light effects to emphasize the magical appearance of
an “unreachable being”.

Sterven in Stijl (To die in style) is a solo by Hans Bryssinck and Dolores Bouckaert. Sterven in Stijl shows an actress wandering round between various scenes that increasingly head for her death: fragments of memories, lost loves and a last confession.

The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up.
Revelation 8:7

DESCRIPTION

A rain of fire. In a dark space little drops of fire fall from the ceiling into water. At first sight the drops look like fireflies falling from the sky. Little blue lights appear and disappear in total blackness.

BASIC ASSUMPTION

RAIN is the first installation of a series with the basic assumption “the end of the world” in different variations: -The apocalypse as a Christian idea, with strong surrealistic images. Or reality: the climate changes due to pollution. Mankind has evolved into a stranger in his own natural environment.

The installation itself is a difficult balance between the controlled machine and a device in the verge of catching fire. This is where the installation finds his poetic power.

Waar, voorwaar, zijn de discrete charmes van de bourgeoisie gebleven? In hun enigmatisch klinkende ensemblestuk “Chuck Norris Doesn’t Sleep, He Waits…” nemen Danai Anesiadou, Hans Bryssinck en Diederik Peeters elk om beurt de rol van de even decadent als cinematisch icoon waar. Centraal in hun draaiboek van even absurdistisch als streng gechoreografeerde tableaux vivants staat de filmische representatie van aristocratisch ennui.

In “Chuck Norris” dalen onze argeloze protagonisten af in een labyrintische onderwereld van archaïsche codes en ondoorzichtige rituelen; het enige licht aan het einde van deze eindeloos lopende tunnel is dat van ouderwetse, groteske horror: een hartelijk aanbevolen schouwspel van alledaagse verbijstering.

With a group of fifteen participants, Irma Firma combs the neighbourhood in search of anything edible. How can we survive in a metropolis on tasty and nutritious ingredients provided by the city itself? Pick, forage and taste!

The art of falling

A nimble body in the void, suspended in the air as the centre of the universe. Incomplete wings, which overcome gravity for a split second. The triumphant plunge, before the final, fatal embrace. What goes on in the head of a person falling? In that short instant, in that eternity, between heaven and earth? Forever Overhead: is the first performance by Lisbeth Gruwez, who has been remarkable in productions by Jan Fabre, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and Jan Lauwers. Forever Overhead shows the body out of balance and is a physical drawing about the art of falling.

A new way of experiencing the city. Get to know and understand the surfaces on which you walk. The walkers will be seen as performers. Any on-looker will be the public.

With a group of fifteen participants, Irma Firma combs the neighbourhood in search of anything edible. How can we survive in a metropolis on tasty and nutritious ingredients provided by the city itself? Pick, forage and taste!

The Stills consist of gigantic projections: naked, voluminous human figures, imprisoned in a space which is much too small for them. They sometimes move slightly, seeking the most comfortable position in which to bear their uncertain situation. Still I & II was commissioned in September 2006 by La Notte Bianca in Rome. The pictures were projected onto one of the megalomaniac façades of the EUR, a suburb of Rome built by Mussolini. Despite their magnitude, the precarious position in which these naked, utterly fragile figures find themselves was in stark contrast to the self-assured, social-realist architecture. A similarly imposing and demagogically tainted location was sought – and found – in Brussels: the upper part of the Kunstberg.

The art of falling

A nimble body in the void, suspended in the air as the centre of the universe. Incomplete wings, which overcome gravity for a split second. The triumphant plunge, before the final, fatal embrace. What goes on in the head of a person falling? In that short instant, in that eternity, between heaven and earth? Forever Overhead: is the first performance by Lisbeth Gruwez, who has been remarkable in productions by Jan Fabre, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and Jan Lauwers. Forever Overhead shows the body out of balance and is a physical drawing about the art of falling.

Poni turns its guns on theatre. The key words in this performance are Ritual, Illusion and Death. How does one dismantle the rituals and obsessions of theatre? And what remains of classical themes, codes and tricks? What is the point of those curtains? What if the theatre itself does a striptease? And what illusions do we cling to, no matter what the price?

Themes: Death illusion and ritual
This triptych was absorbed, chewed and worked on by all members of the collective. This way, sub themes are created like circus, fairytales, memories/memory, religion, tennis, photography.
In short, Poni is engaged in a duel with theatre in a hybrid work that combines performance art, live rock music, dance and theatre.

Wanneer u Het Lichaamshof bezoekt, kan u zich voor de duur van een verhaal onderdompelen in de geheime wereld van een hut, een afgesloten plek die onderdak biedt aan het erotisch-apocalyptisch spel van twee jonge meisjes, teruggaand op spookbeelden uit de kindertijd.
Het Lichaamshof is een onbekend territorium, een plek waar de leugen van een verhaal een hallucinatie wordt, waar de leugen de waarheid lijkt te zeggen, waar deze waarheid troost biedt en het gevoel geeft te leven. Het leven als een spel, waar men voor het genot het risico neemt van pijn te hebben, waar men om vrolijk te zijn het risico neemt van gek te worden.
De installatie Het Lichaamshof is een no man’s land waarvan de bewoners voor zichzelf een wereld hebben geconstrueerd met als enige referentiepunt de hut zelf.

A Las Vegas showgirl emerges from a month lost in the forest – muddy, disheveled and more animal than human. Somebody explains the expenses involved in being authentic. One woman reads pheromones. Another explains her ‘instinct for failure’.

The art of falling

A nimble body in the void, suspended in the air as the centre of the universe. Incomplete wings, which overcome gravity for a split second. The triumphant plunge, before the final, fatal embrace. What goes on in the head of a person falling? In that short instant, in that eternity, between heaven and earth? Forever Overhead: is the first performance by Lisbeth Gruwez, who has been remarkable in productions by Jan Fabre, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and Jan Lauwers. Forever Overhead shows the body out of balance and is a physical drawing about the art of falling.

1) Some different aspects of the installation HEART : A man and a woman are connected to each other with a rope, a steal cable, between them a ‘winch’, she stands in front of the audience, he on a ladder behind the curtains: when he jumps, she is pulled backwards 9m and 4m high and smashes against a wall. The man is invisible to the woman, but sometimes she felt when he wanted to jump.

2) The structure of the classical ‘pas de deux’: from this heavily coded material different movements will be distilled.

DESCRIPTION
A man and woman are in a situation of absolute mutual dependence. As opposed to the situation in HEART man and woman are visible for each other. They execute their dance movements in a live loop. These movements will be deconstructed and mechanically manipulated. The machine pushes them to repeat perfectly; for which they inevitably have to trust each other. They are left to each other.

With How do you like my landscape Manah Depauw and Bernard Van Eeghem use sharp imagination to redefine the place of the human body within our society, which is still prey to a puritanical eye and political correctness. By means of slight manipulation – disconcerning by its simplicity – Depauw and Van Eeghem remove the human body from its normal context and place it in unexpected situations. The four-episode spectacle takes place around a landscape where the apparent tranquillity only serves to camouflage terrible beasts that, given a chance would awaken in us all those desires that we prefer to remain hidden. The audience follows a world that transforms itself and develops through the four episodes.

The argument of Specchi , two variations on “the woman cut into pieces” – located between dance and visual art – is the deconstruction of the female form. Here it would involve dismantling the mechanism of illusion, extrapolating it by bringing it into view and exposing on stage with mirrors that cut off, dislocate, derealize; boxes that contain, frame, absorb.

« What interests me is producing truncated forms in relation to image and composition. It is the creation of illuminated, unreal forms outside the immediacy of the bodies.The mirror creates unreal forms outside the immediacy of the bodies. The box is its negation: wrappings that cause a reduction of movement in bas-relief ».

In this visual distancing a specific emotional tension is produced, a kind of “mise en abyme” of what is being seen, a vibration of what is “present on stage”. In this project, the research topic for the female performers is the way the spectator sees women’s bodies. They are challenging collective iconography in order to create new poetic opportunities.

Poni turns its guns on theatre. The key words in this performance are Ritual, Illusion and Death. How does one dismantle the rituals and obsessions of theatre? And what remains of classical themes, codes and tricks? What is the point of those curtains? What if the theatre itself does a striptease? And what illusions do we cling to, no matter what the price?

Themes: Death illusion and ritual
This triptych was absorbed, chewed and worked on by all members of the collective. This way, sub themes are created like circus, fairytales, memories/memory, religion, tennis, photography.
In short, Poni is engaged in a duel with theatre in a hybrid work that combines performance art, live rock music, dance and theatre.

Poni turns its guns on theatre. The key words in this performance are Ritual, Illusion and Death. How does one dismantle the rituals and obsessions of theatre? And what remains of classical themes, codes and tricks? What is the point of those curtains? What if the theatre itself does a striptease? And what illusions do we cling to, no matter what the price?

Themes: Death illusion and ritual
This triptych was absorbed, chewed and worked on by all members of the collective. This way, sub themes are created like circus, fairytales, memories/memory, religion, tennis, photography.
In short, Poni is engaged in a duel with theatre in a hybrid work that combines performance art, live rock music, dance and theatre.

Wanneer u Het Lichaamshof bezoekt, kan u zich voor de duur van een verhaal onderdompelen in de geheime wereld van een hut, een afgesloten plek die onderdak biedt aan het erotisch-apocalyptisch spel van twee jonge meisjes, teruggaand op spookbeelden uit de kindertijd.
Het Lichaamshof is een onbekend territorium, een plek waar de leugen van een verhaal een hallucinatie wordt, waar de leugen de waarheid lijkt te zeggen, waar deze waarheid troost biedt en het gevoel geeft te leven. Het leven als een spel, waar men voor het genot het risico neemt van pijn te hebben, waar men om vrolijk te zijn het risico neemt van gek te worden.
De installatie Het Lichaamshof is een no man’s land waarvan de bewoners voor zichzelf een wereld hebben geconstrueerd met als enige referentiepunt de hut zelf.

Wanneer u Het Lichaamshof bezoekt, kan u zich voor de duur van een verhaal onderdompelen in de geheime wereld van een hut, een afgesloten plek die onderdak biedt aan het erotisch-apocalyptisch spel van twee jonge meisjes, teruggaand op spookbeelden uit de kindertijd.
Het Lichaamshof is een onbekend territorium, een plek waar de leugen van een verhaal een hallucinatie wordt, waar de leugen de waarheid lijkt te zeggen, waar deze waarheid troost biedt en het gevoel geeft te leven. Het leven als een spel, waar men voor het genot het risico neemt van pijn te hebben, waar men om vrolijk te zijn het risico neemt van gek te worden.
De installatie Het Lichaamshof is een no man’s land waarvan de bewoners voor zichzelf een wereld hebben geconstrueerd met als enige referentiepunt de hut zelf.

The art of falling

A nimble body in the void, suspended in the air as the centre of the universe. Incomplete wings, which overcome gravity for a split second. The triumphant plunge, before the final, fatal embrace. What goes on in the head of a person falling? In that short instant, in that eternity, between heaven and earth? Forever Overhead: is the first performance by Lisbeth Gruwez, who has been remarkable in productions by Jan Fabre, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and Jan Lauwers. Forever Overhead shows the body out of balance and is a physical drawing about the art of falling.

Some stories are treason, some are dreamy, some are brutal, some are too funny to believe, some are too painful to tell straight, some are magical and others are poorly made, some might be the honest truth, and some are beautiful but hard to remember. A narrative is a slippery thing.
Kate McIntosh has collaborated with five writers to make the performance text for LOOSE PROMISE. She gave each of them the same set of narrative ingredients to start from, but asked each to write their own version of the story. The result is a collection of beautiful, difficult and compelling narratives. The stories are bound by their shared origin, but they head out in very different and surprising directions. The narratives of LOOSE PROMISE create worlds that echo each other, and yet can hardly co-exist. The performance itself, sparked by a fascination with the interdependence of stories, explores our compulsion to keep forming and digesting them….

With How do you like my landscape Manah Depauw and Bernard Van Eeghem use sharp imagination to redefine the place of the human body within our society, which is still prey to a puritanical eye and political correctness. By means of slight manipulation – disconcerning by its simplicity – Depauw and Van Eeghem remove the human body from its normal context and place it in unexpected situations. The four-episode spectacle takes place around a landscape where the apparent tranquillity only serves to camouflage terrible beasts that, given a chance would awaken in us all those desires that we prefer to remain hidden. The audience follows a world that transforms itself and develops through the four episodes.

I/II/III/IIII is a new theatrical installation by the performance artist Kris Verdonck. Four ‘identical’ female dancers hang like marionettes in a huge ‘machine’. Together with them performance artist Kris Verdonck generated a passage of choreography: a solo, a duet, a trio and a pas de quatre. They sought the greatest possible freedom from the machine, but sooner or later it sent them in the direction it decided upon. The images evoked by I/II/III/IIII are confusing, many-layered and ambiguous: they remind us of the white birds in Swan Lake and also of animal carcases being dragged along, hovering angels, falling human bodies and everything in between.

It began with a true story – a man found drowned in a shallow river, wearing a home-made fish-suit. This passionate yet doomed attempt to escape from his own human-ness was the sparking point for Hair From the Throat .
What happens if we want to escape human nature? The blurred distinction between animal and human appeals to us while at the same time filling us with distaste. In Hair from the Throat there is a plenty of experimentation with radical self-transformation and amateurish attempts at animalism.

Poni turns its guns on theatre. The key words in this performance are Ritual, Illusion and Death. How does one dismantle the rituals and obsessions of theatre? And what remains of classical themes, codes and tricks? What is the point of those curtains? What if the theatre itself does a striptease? And what illusions do we cling to, no matter what the price?

Themes: Death illusion and ritual
This triptych was absorbed, chewed and worked on by all members of the collective. This way, sub themes are created like circus, fairytales, memories/memory, religion, tennis, photography.
In short, Poni is engaged in a duel with theatre in a hybrid work that combines performance art, live rock music, dance and theatre.

Waar, voorwaar, zijn de discrete charmes van de bourgeoisie gebleven? In hun enigmatisch klinkende ensemblestuk “Chuck Norris Doesn’t Sleep, He Waits…” nemen Danai Anesiadou, Hans Bryssinck en Diederik Peeters elk om beurt de rol van de even decadent als cinematisch icoon waar. Centraal in hun draaiboek van even absurdistisch als streng gechoreografeerde tableaux vivants staat de filmische representatie van aristocratisch ennui.

In “Chuck Norris” dalen onze argeloze protagonisten af in een labyrintische onderwereld van archaïsche codes en ondoorzichtige rituelen; het enige licht aan het einde van deze eindeloos lopende tunnel is dat van ouderwetse, groteske horror: een hartelijk aanbevolen schouwspel van alledaagse verbijstering.

Some stories are treason, some are dreamy, some are brutal, some are too funny to believe, some are too painful to tell straight, some are magical and others are poorly made, some might be the honest truth, and some are beautiful but hard to remember. A narrative is a slippery thing.
Kate McIntosh has collaborated with five writers to make the performance text for LOOSE PROMISE. She gave each of them the same set of narrative ingredients to start from, but asked each to write their own version of the story. The result is a collection of beautiful, difficult and compelling narratives. The stories are bound by their shared origin, but they head out in very different and surprising directions. The narratives of LOOSE PROMISE create worlds that echo each other, and yet can hardly co-exist. The performance itself, sparked by a fascination with the interdependence of stories, explores our compulsion to keep forming and digesting them….

I/II/III/IIII is a new theatrical installation by the performance artist Kris Verdonck. Four ‘identical’ female dancers hang like marionettes in a huge ‘machine’. Together with them performance artist Kris Verdonck generated a passage of choreography: a solo, a duet, a trio and a pas de quatre. They sought the greatest possible freedom from the machine, but sooner or later it sent them in the direction it decided upon. The images evoked by I/II/III/IIII are confusing, many-layered and ambiguous: they remind us of the white birds in Swan Lake and also of animal carcases being dragged along, hovering angels, falling human bodies and everything in between.

The argument of Specchi , two variations on “the woman cut into pieces” – located between dance and visual art – is the deconstruction of the female form. Here it would involve dismantling the mechanism of illusion, extrapolating it by bringing it into view and exposing on stage with mirrors that cut off, dislocate, derealize; boxes that contain, frame, absorb.

« What interests me is producing truncated forms in relation to image and composition. It is the creation of illuminated, unreal forms outside the immediacy of the bodies.The mirror creates unreal forms outside the immediacy of the bodies. The box is its negation: wrappings that cause a reduction of movement in bas-relief ».

In this visual distancing a specific emotional tension is produced, a kind of “mise en abyme” of what is being seen, a vibration of what is “present on stage”. In this project, the research topic for the female performers is the way the spectator sees women’s bodies. They are challenging collective iconography in order to create new poetic opportunities.