Nachtschade / Nightshade / Belladonne
Six choreographers and one director create a striptease act
The Victoria theatre company from Ghent invited seven icons of the contemporary performing arts to create a choreography for a striptease act. For once Alain Platel, Vera Mantero, Wim Vandekeybus, Johanne Saunier, Claudia Triozzi, Caterina Sagna and Eric De Volder are not working together with their usual group of dancers or actors but with professional male and female striptease dancers.
The numbers they create are combined in Nachtschade / Nightshade / Belladonne, a performance that brings together entertainment and the world of art. Although they work around ‘striptease’, the artists present their number in a clearly defined artistic context. They examine striptease as a dance form within the familiar conventions of the contemporary performing arts. Consequently they do not present their number in a striptease joint or at a location that suggests a particular theme, but in a neutral theatrical context.
Victoria attempts to take artists away from their specific territory by posing an atypical question or by touching on ‘non-artistic’ or social subjects in an artistic context. Nachtschade / Nightshade / Belladonne seeks confrontation. The challenge for the seven artists consists in giving a meaningful place to erotic dance, the play of pure seduction and the beauty of the provocative naked body that has nothing to do with existing clichés, as well as to stimulate the audience with their special aesthetic approach.
The music for the production is by the composer Ad Cominotto, who has already worked together with Arno, Viktor Lazlo and Adamo. In consultation with each choreographer he has created a composition to be performed live by the Emanon ensemble.
concept Dirk Pauwels
chorégraphie Alain Platel, Wim Vandekeybus, Vera Mantero, Johanne Saunier, Caterina Sagna, Eric De Volder, Claudia Triozzi
danse Barbara Rom, Delphine Clairet, Caroline Lemaire, Sky van der Hoek, Gidi Meesters, Cecilia Bengolea Marti, Sarah Moon Howe
musique Ad Cominotto
musique en direct, interprétée par Emanon Ensemble
direction générale Pol Heyvaert, Dirk Pauwels
production Victoria (Gent)
coproduction Parc de la Villette (Parijs)
en collaboration avec Vooruit (Gent), het Festival van Vlaanderen
casting Pol Heyvaert, Carl Gydé
responsable de la production Wim Clapdorp
régie André Schneider
