Alain Platel & Frank Van Laecke / les ballets C de la B
A special education teacher by training, Alain Platel founded, in 1984 in Ghent, a dance collective that shortly after took the name of les ballets C de la B. A self-taught artist, he learned the choreographer's profession on the job and opted, right from the beginning, for the mix of genres. Bringing together performers from different countries and artistic worlds, his show brilliantly blend dance, theatre and music to give a voice to the most afflicted. An engagé style that is marked by humanity, which rapidly won him international fame. In 2003, Wolf, a show on Mozart that is of an astonishing vitality, toured the world and created a great deal of enthusiasm through its rather exceptional dose of exuberance and extravagance. At the height of his recognition, Alain Platel chose to focus his work and that of his company on a more introspective, simple, edgy, even ascetic dance. Hence, a few pieces of new inspiration, like vsprs based on the work of Monteverdi, Nine Finger and Pity!, on the music of Johann Sebastian Bach. Alain Platel and les ballets C de la B have been to Avignon several times, presenting Bonjour Madame in 1996, Bernadetje in 1997, All Indians in 2000, vsprs in 2006 and Nine Finger in 2007.
In Belgian, the press nicknamed him "the magician" for his skill in going from one art to another. Frank Van Laecke likes to direct for theatre and opera stages, but he doesn't look down on musical comedies, which made his international reputation (Hollywood by Night, Jesus Christ Superstar and Jekyll & Hyde), or large-scale shows. Because he isn't afraid of entertainment and knows how to play with it, pushing volume and farce as far as they will go. And with that in mind, he staged, these last few years, Tintin and the Temple of the Sun, The Prince of Africa, Dracula, Rembrandt, De Musical, Pirates Pirates!, Daens or Booh!, a series run for the VTM television channel. But he can easily go back to a purer aesthetic and rigorously direct Checkov or young Flemish playwrights. Using an idea by the transsexual actress from Ghent, Vanessa Van Durme, whom he staged in 2006 in the moving Look Mummy, I'm Dancing, he has now focused, with Alain Platel, on "the stormy destiny of nine remarkable people".
ADB, April 2010