Ends of worlds

How can we say something about the future through the lens of the past? Michiel Vandevelde examines the recent history of western modern and contemporary dance, from Isadora Duncan to Anna Halprin. Their dances and choreographies are read as codes and signs from the past that infiltrate the future. Which ideological remains are reflected through these dances? What if the traces of these dances are to survive humankind as we know it? How would they be interpreted in the future?

The year is 0.2300. The bodies of the dancers: reproduced homo sapiens. The stage: a historical reconstruction. The dance: an evocation of a past space-time construct. In five speculative acts about the past from the future, the present is inevitably reflected upon. This way, choreography becomes a form of science-fiction. Whilst time traveling, not only is the history of dance misrepresented and reimagined, but also past disasters are remembered.

• Artist-in-residence Michiel Vandevelde – a graduate from PARTS who is active as a choreographer and curator of Extra City – has been noted over the past few years for his quadriptych about re-appropriation in which he transforms popular dance motifs into something new. Three productions in this series were staged at Kaaitheater: Antithesis, Our times, and Andrade.