any attempt will end in crushed bodies and shattered bones

  • Dance
  • Show
  • Cancelled edition
The 2020 archive

Jan Martens

Anvers / Created in 2020

This group show by Flemish choreographer Jan Martens embodies the current movements of resistance against oppression, inequality, and the climate crisis. Silence, screams, immobility, pressure: what paths remain open to us?
any attempt will end in crushed bodies and shattered bones, Jan Martens, 2020 © Luis Xertu

Presentation

Choreographer Jan Martens is on fire! With the help of 17 performers, the Flemish artist proposes to explore the various forms of activism currently multiplying all over the world. In the face of climate-related or social challenges, against established or budding tyrannies, many motives for resistance find themselves embodied by dancers of all ages. With, at the heart of this piece in movement, what becomes the beginning of all political action: immobility. Through the sudden slowing down of its dynamic, any attempt will end in crushed bodies and shattered bones questions our impulses and our exaltations, as well as our need to recentre ourselves all the better to act. Jan Martens turns the stage into the space of a possible democracy, where slowing down doesn't mean stopping cold, where music sounds like a shout, and protest is a shared necessity. With this astounding work of synthesis, Jan Martens presents an ideal community and leads our steps further, closest to what makes us human.

Distribution

With Ty Boomershine, Truus Bronkhorst, Jim Buskens, Baptiste Cazaux, Zoë Chungong, Piet Defrancq, Naomi Gibson, Kimmy Ligtvoet, Cherish Menzo, Steven Michel, Gesine Moog, Dan Mussett, Wolf Overmeire in alternation with Pierre Bastin, Tim Persent, Courtney May Robertson, Laura Vanborm, Loeka Willems in alternation with Georgia Boddez

Choreography Jan Martens
Artistic collaboration Anne-Lise Brevers
Lights Jan Fedinger
Costumes Cédric Charlier, Thibault Kuhn, Alexandra Sebbag
Outside view Marc Vanrunxt, Renée Copraij, Rudi Meulemans, Siska Baeck
Additionnal music Henryk Górecki, Lauryn Hill, Max Roach (in progress)

Production

Production GRIP
In collaboration with Dance On Ensemble
Co-production de Singel (Antwerp), Theater Freiburg, Sadler's Wells (London), Festival d'Avignon, Julidans (Amsterdam), Le Gymnase CDCN Roubaix Hauts-de-France, Norrlandsoperan (Umeå, Suède), La Bâtie Festival de Genève et l'Association pour la danse contemporaine Genève, tanzhaus nrw (Düsseldorf), Le Parvis Scène nationale Tarbes-Pyrénées, La Danse en grande forme (projet A-CDCN), Perpodium (Antwerp)
With the support of De Grote Post (Ostende), Charleroi Danse, CCN d'Orléans, Théâtre d'Orléans, le gouvernement flamand, Ville d'Anvers, Tax Shelter du gouvernement fédéral de Belgique, Cronos Invest
Diffusion A Propic / Line Rousseau, Marion Gauvent

Practical infos

Pictures

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