Graduation Show – Bachelor in Contemporary Dance, La Manufacture

La Manufacture (Haute Ecole des Arts de la Scène in Lausanne) has a tradition of inviting internationally renowned choreographers to compose new pieces with a group of students.   

Kaaitheatre already in 2021 had the chance to present the pieces created by Simone Aughterlony and Marcelo Evelin to the public. This year, the choreographers Alma Soderberg and Salva Sanchis are each responsible for the choreography of the pieces that make up this evening.  We are delighted to see the work of these two choreographers, who have both lived and worked in Brussels for a long time. The choice to bring them together in a composite evening offers a most pleasing perspective.  For although their practices and works are relatively distant from each other, they come together in the intrinsic relationship of their choreographic work to music.   

Salva Sanchis (whose work has been performed at Kaaitheatre many times before, most notably with Rosas) bases this piece on the 32 most used words in Stravinsky's The Wedding. As for Alma Söderberg, she and the dancers compose a score using both voice and body. Polyrhythm, syncopation, melodic exploration, this Ensemble Piece is written not for a defined set of individuals but in such a way as to 'create an ensemble'.   

• Winner of the Thalia Prize and associated with the Cullberg Ballet, Swedish choreographer and performer Alma Söderberg uses her body and voice to play the space as if it were a musical instrument. Curious about listening as much as seeing, she makes these combined perceptions a subject of research in her creations.   

A graduate of the first generation of P.A.R.T.S. in 1998, Salva Sanchis devotes himself both to creation - with some twenty pieces to his credit - and to teaching. A regular collaborator of Marc Vanrunxt and Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, the Catalan dancer and choreographer also likes to explore the relationship between movement and music.