We're pretty fuckin' far from okay

We're pretty fuckin' far from okay explores our fears and anxieties. By choosing to have the audience face two dancers caught in a simple set-up—a man, a woman, two chairs, corridors of light...—Lisbeth Gruwez does not intend to talk about couples but about the individual, about his or her emotional, psychological, and physical reactions when he or she experiences fear. Through a gesture language made up of our natural and everyday reflexes, the choreographer invites every one of us to see ourselves in and identify with the dancers. The starting point of the show: Alfred Hitchcock's horror films, and in particular The Birds, because “the fear it is about is irrational. It is a phobia, a paranoia. It resonates strongly with what's happening in our world.” Through a progressive rise in the intensity of the movements, through the well-known feeling of needing the other more and more, through layers of sound that are adjusted in real time, and through this shared act that is breathing, the show offers an immersive experience. Fear has the power to put the body in a state of trance, to obstruct the mind, and to disconnect it from “the will and the doing,” which makes it a fertile playground for the dancers. The third step in a research about the body in a state of ecstasy, We're pretty fuckin' far from okay is a duo that echoes the solo It's going to get worse and worse and worse, my friend (2012) and the collective show AH/HA (2014). As we're trying today to control what can't be controlled, does it remain true that when thought loses itself, so does the body?

Conception, choreography and costumes Lisbeth Gruwez
Composition and sound Maarten Van Cauwenberghe
Lights Harry Cole, Caroline Mathieu
Dramaturgy Bart Van den Eynde
Stage design Marie Szersnovicz, Lisbeth Gruwez, Maarten Van Cauwenberghe
Assistant Choreographer Lucius Romeo-Fromm

With Lisbeth Gruwez, Nicolas Vladyslav

Production Voetvolk
Co-production Festival d'Avignon, La Bâtie Festival de Genève, KVS Bruxelles, Le Phare Centre chorégraphique national du Havre Normandie, Theater Im Pumpenhaus, Les Brigittines Bruxelles, Tandem Arras-Douai, Weimar Kunstfest, Troubleyn|Jan Fabre, MA Scène nationale Pays de Montbéliard
Artistic residences Troubleyn|Jan Fabre, Buda Kunstencentrum, Stuk, Les Brigittines
With the support of Nona, Flemish Community Commission, BNP Paribas Foundation, gouvernement of Flanders and Antwerp City