BLESSED
Struggle for life
American-Belgian choreographer Meg Stuart met Portuguese dancer and choreographer Francisco Camacho for the first time in New York at the end of the 1980's. He followed her to Belgium to dance in her debut Disfigure Study. In 2007, they together created the widely acclaimed BLESSED, which is now being presented again in the large auditorium of the Kaaitheater.
On stage are a hut, a palm tree and a swan in cardboard. Slowly, mechanically and single-mindedly, a man strolls through his silent paradise. Until it starts to rain and his seemingly imperturbable world slowly collapses. With BLESSED, Meg Stuart has poetically and compellingly grasped the essence of the human condition. Simple elements like rain, cardboard and the human body are an ultimate defence against any downfall. An unrelenting struggle for life, which due to the sensitive power of its aesthetics is also capable of providing comfort despite all the gloom.
BLESSED was awarded the prestigious Critics' Prize for the 'best foreign production' in Paris in 2008.
Are we here yet? book presentation - after the 1st of April performance
In Are we here yet? Meg Stuart reflects on her own practice in dialogue with Jeroen Peeters and several past and present members of Damaged Goods.
Are we here yet? links together significant moments from Stuart’s artistic career by means of reflections on creation, performing, improvisation and dramaturgy. In addition, the book includes illustrations, documents and performance scripts, as well as an actual guide with exercises.
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choreography Meg Stuart | creation, performance Francisco Camacho, Kotomi Nishiwaki | music Hahn Rowe | dramaturgy Bart Van den Eynde | installation Doris Dziersk | costumes Jean-Paul Lespagnard | light Jan Maertens | choreographic assistance Abraham Hurtado | production manager Frank Laubenheimer | technical co-ordination Robrecht Ghesquière, Jan Maertens | sound Vincent Malstaf, Milos Vujkovic | stage manager Kay Hupka, Rinus Van de Velde | set assistance Ania Pas | costume assistance Françoise Hottois | | production Damaged Goods, EIRA | co-production
Vooruit (Ghent), Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz (Berlin), PACT
Zollverein (Essen), Centro Cultural de Belém (Lisbon), Théâtre de la
Bastille (Paris), Festival d’Automne (Paris) | Meg Stuart & Damaged
Goods are supported by the Flemish government and the Flemish Community Commission; Francisco Camacho & EIRA are supported by MC/IA | thanks Sonya
Cipriano, Christine Clauser, Sarah Corijnen, Ierê Ferreira, Françoise
Hottois, Anne Kleiner, André Lepecki, Britta Mayer, Christine Peterges,
Eddy Present
