For the sake of artists everywhere 03.03.'21
We cannot remain silent on issues like the seizure of Ata Khatab The seizing and jailing of a Palestinian dancer is part of the silencing of cultural critics in Israel, writes the University of Auckland's Professor Nicholas Rowe Professor Rowe lived in the Occupied Palestinian Territories from 2000-2008 and is the author of 'Raising Dust: A cultural history of dance in Palestine'.
Source article: https://www.newsroom.co.nz/ideasroom/dancing-in-chains?fbclid=IwAR1BwyS8XykWEOsRzt1GcIUF6a5JYLkugQpkDL6M76yLzsA2gB48pNDTod0
newsitem added on 03.03.'21
La Tristeza Complice on Podium19 05.03.'21
La Tristeza Complice: Purcell on accordion Musical revival at Podium 19 More than 25 years ago, director Alain Platel and composer Dick van der Harst created the legendary "La Tristeza Complice". One was co-founder of les ballets C de la B, the other of LOD music theater. Together they browsed through the work of Henry Purcell (1659-1695) and brutally selected only what immediately pleased, stood out and appealed to them as pop music for a musical theater performance. Both liked contradictions and sudden mood changes. Platel let that speak in dance, while van der Harst expressed it with Purcell's baroque music.Take a seat at home and watch Thursday 25/03 – deSingel OnLive Friday 02/04 – Podium19.be LOD muziektheater & les ballets C de la B : La Tristeza Complice composition Dick van der Harst (naar Henry Purcell) | direction and concept Alain Platel | accordion orchestra conducted by Gwen Cresens | with Barbara Ardenois, Gwen Cresens, Louis De Backere, Elke De Meester, Ward Ginneberge, Issa Hellebaut, Luca Pignata, Sara Salverius, Ivan Smeulders, Lowie Vercammen |soprano Lieselot De Wildeproduction LOD muziektheater & les ballets C de la B
newsitem added on 05.03.'21
New Co-laBo in the studio 24.02.'21
Belgian dancer and choreographer Cassiel Gaube is currently working on Soirée d’études during the second part of his Co-laBo residency. Cassiel is developing his work at the intersection of contemporary dance and Hip hop and Clubbing dances.Train Swirl – Étude. He is now expanding the research set out in this solo: together with Federica "Mia" Miani and Diego "Odd Sweet" Dolciami, two Paris-based dancers experienced in Street dance, he is creating Soirée d’études : a trio exploring the rich vocabulary of House Dance in an ever-evolving and expanding series of études.Soirée d’études was planned for November 2020 in Paris, followed by a tour in France and Belgium. Most performances have been postponed to a later date. We hope that the show can be shared with an audience soon.here .
newsitem added on 24.02.'21
10.02.'21
“How can the history that is written in bodies, speak to us? Not just history in collective bodies, but also in the bodies of individual people?” Badke – change the places of the consonants and you arrive at dabke, the Palestinian folk dance. 10 young Palestinian dancers from various disciplines (contemporary dance, hiphop, circus) took the dabke as starting point and confronted this locally rooted dance with elements from worldwide pop dance culture. So Badke became a double quest: one that conveys the unique Palestinian desire to ‘belong somewhere’, and at the same time the wish to be part of a world beyond that.Badke watch the performance here (again) .
newsitem added on 10.02.'21
15.02.'21
Ten years after the world tour, the stars of Gardenia reunite. Or not quite. Andrea has left us forever. And as she went, so did Tina Turner. Eight of them now, they continue. Eight individuals so special you will want to get to know them. Want to embrace them.Gardenia – 10 years later
newsitem added on 15.02.'21
Between peeping in and reaching out 01.02.'21
Between peeping in and reaching out Does the corona context yield anything artistically or is it just a loss? Will new forms of creation or presentation emerge alongside digitalisation? Are we left with nothing but thwarted plans and a bottleneck for the coming years? Can something of value flourish on the playground delineated by protocols? Or are occasional projects always second-hand, because they do not stem from artistic necessity? Mein Gent Gardenia will be resumed, the 'transvestite show' with eight survivors of an average age of 75. With what we now know about the vaccination, it could work. If you want to take a look behind the scenes, you can watch the film Gardenia - Before the last curtain falls on VRT.nu (available until 31/01). Gardenia , a slow shedding between an old and a new identity. That calls for a ritual.De Standaard der Letteren on January 2. While looking at her burning note in the fire, de Wit reflects: "Sometimes I think it would have been better if I had publicly declared what I wanted to leave behind, then there would have been witnesses who could have occasionally said to me: 'But isn’t that what you wanted to leave behind? Sometimes I even think that it would be better if we decided together (and I am in fact thinking of the whole country) what to leave behind and take with us to the next year. Because it is so difficult to leave behind on your own the things you want to get rid of, but at the same time are so attached to." A week later, it turns out that de Wit has misunderstood the assignment: Oh, said the person who had recommended the ritual: "Then I haven't explained it properly after all. Most attention should go to what you want to take with you, and what you leave behind is a consequence of that. So you should always start with what you want to take with you." We at les ballets found these inspiring thoughts: that you start with what you want to take with you, and that you can't do it alone.
newsitem added on 01.02.'21
... we wanted to keep it big 28.01.'21
Many opted for a reduction in scale, but we wanted to keep it big. Va pensiero together, known as the slave chorus from Verdi's Nabucco . O mio patria si bella e perduta. Perhaps preceded by the words of conductor Riccardo Muti: that the homeland is lost when culture is killed. When he uttered those historic words at the Milan opera before inviting the audience to sing along (but on the beat!), his words referred to the cuts that were hitting culture in Italy too.
newsitem added on 28.01.'21
Necropolis online at Vagamondes festival 18.01.'21
Organized by La Filature in Mulhouse (FR), Les Vagamondes festival offers an international and multidisciplinary outlook and strives to overcome borders through various artistic works. This year’s online edition will be devoted to the Mediterranean space. It presents a focus on Arkadi Zaides’ most recent works Talos and Necropolis , that both question the migratory movements happening in Europe and at its borders.Talos by Arkadi Zaides : VIDEO N° 387 disparu en Méditerranée , by Madeleine Leroyer, of which the research has inspired Arkadi Zaides for Necropolis : FILM Necropolis by Arkadi Zaides : VIDEO Necropolis , Arkadi Zaides had a residency at ballets C de la B (Co-laBo #18 here .
newsitem added on 18.01.'21
How are les ballets C de la B doing? 18.01.'21
There are many people who ask us what the impact of COVID-19 is on the work of les ballets C de la B. We cannot tell this story without telling another one, a story that had already begun before the lockdown or corona virus came to enrich our vocabulary. The impact of COVID-19 on les ballets C de la B is huge - we are no different from others in the performing arts. But at the same time, corona came to reinforce a transition that started two years ago. Where we are today has more to do with the thorough rethinking of long-term operations than with the temporary management of a sanitary crisis.Requiem pour L. in January 2018. Director Alain Platel, lynchpin of the company, indicated that he no longer could or wanted to bear responsibility for the wellbeing of the employees. The company had been reorganized exclusively around his work from 2013 onwards. In 2017, a modest development trajectory was added in the form of the Co-laBo’s . No matter how enthusiastic Platel was about this residency program, his creations remained the driving force for the company. Every creation had to be a bull's-eye; every tour had to live up to the programmers' expectations. The ups and downs of about thirty people depended on it: performers, technicians, seller and administration. That is a heavy weight on the shoulders of just one person. It used to be different: the burden was carried by many creative shoulders. Until 2012, les ballets was a platform for various choreographers, but the then advisory committee for dance objected. They only wanted to support the organisation if it would organise itself exclusively around Platel's work, something that passed his own wish to share.Requiem pour L. the tour was still done the old way in collaboration with Frans Brood Productions (more than 130 dates); for Mein Gent , the new creation, it would be radically different: first three weeks of playing at Vooruit in Ghent, then imagining how to set up the project needing the participation of a 100 volunteers elsewhere. And above all, for the future, we wanted to look again for various artistic partners and reconnect with the DNA of les Ballets: one nest for many broods.Then the pandemic broke out. We were one week before the premiere of C(H)ŒURS 2020 with Opera Ballet Flanders, with performances in Ghent and Antwerp, and the prospect of a historic version in the antique theatre of Epidaurus for the Athens Festival.Requiem pour L. were planned in Canada and the USA (Erna and Valerie worked on the administrative preparations for almost half a year - visas for Congolese and South Africans, which has become much more difficult these days). Out of Context-for Pina was intended for Festival de Marseille, Nicht schlafen at the end of the summer for Calabria. All this was scrapped, and the team became technically unemployed. From September we started up again, with residencies of Arkadi Zaides and Cassiel Gaube. Although the premiere was postponed for a year until January ‘22, the rehearsals of Mein Gent got off to a flying start with Steven Prengels, Frank van Laecke and Alain Platel at the table, and - at a safe distance - Pascale Platel, Gorges Ocloo and Ineke Nijssen.C(H)ŒURS 2020 which is now planned in OBV, Opera Ballet Vlaanderen, for March ‘22 or the C de la B workshops in Tunis. Requiem pour L. will not, however, get a second chance. The Congolese and South African performers received compensation for lost income from the company because they were not eligible for Flemish support measures.
newsitem added on 18.01.'21
27.01.'21
The premiere in the Vooruit Arts Center is postponed to the next season (2021-2022), but this doesn't stop Frank Van Laecke, Alain Platel and Steven Prengels from exploring material already. Together with Ineke Nijssen, Pascale Platel and Gorges Ocloo, they working during a first rehearsal period at the creation of Mein Gent in autumn 2020. On Saturdays they were joined by a group of Ghentians, for the time this could be organised conform the corona-measures. Mein Gent
newsitem added on 27.01.'21
Want to be invited to our studio? 16.10.'20
We will gladly keep you in the loop about open rehearsals or presentations. Fill in your e-mail address here and you'll be added to the mailinglist which we only use to announce these open studio moments.
newsitem added on 16.10.'20
10.05.'19
Since 2004 les ballets C de la B lends its active support to a cultural boycott of Israel. Because of the increasing tension, les ballets C de la B relaunches the call to support the cultural boycott of Israel. Alain Platel emphasizes the relaunch with an open letter:Open letter by Alain Platel (les ballets C de la B). really am not much of a hero and it is always with a heavy heart that I swing into action, when I feel that it is necessary. It is even harder when I am forced to disagree with fellow artists – whose work I admire immensely – in this respect when they claim that these kinds of actions or statements either are not ours to take or make, or don’t help matters whatsoever.and Palestinian artists, both in the Occupied Territories and here in Belgium, however, leaves me no choice. Since my first visit to the Occupied Territories – in 2001, and this during the intifada – I became convinced that the resolution of the conflict in this part of the world could be crucial and could give a huge boost to a positive development in the whole region, and by extension, East-West relationships as a whole. Of course, this is very naïve and utopian, but I believe that harbouring such utopian hopes is a good thing. After all, I see very little or no evidence of how the existing political and military structures do/did get things moving.why , more than ever, I want to make a plea for a delicate, yet special citizens’ initiative: the support for the (cultural) boycott of Israel.everywhere in the Occupied Territories.every day in Palestinian territories. Every day, Palestinians are still being harassed, discriminated against, picked up, locked up or – where ‘necessary’ – simply shot. The OCHA (Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs), a United Nations humanitarian organisation, for instance, regularly publishes the shocking figures of the ‘invisible victims’ who are killed there every year. (see: http://www.ochaopt.org/documents/ocha_opt_the_humanitarian_monitor_2014_10_02_english.pdf ).real , constructive and permanent solutions. A (cultural) boycott is nonviolent but is incredibly irritating and with ardent advocates such as archbishop Desmond Tutu is in very good company.www.bacbi.be www.vrede.be this link .
newsitem added on 10.05.'19
18.10.'17
Les ballets C de la B wants to invest in the next generation by taking in residents who will get the opportunity to be coached in their work by director Alain Platel and Hildegard Devuyst, Platel’s dramaturg for more than 20 years. The basic idea are one-month-residencies in one of the studios at les ballets. There are no prefixed artistic conditions, no exclusives when it comes to form or movement language. Young artists who think their work would benefit from a residency, can apply by mailing to Hildegard De Vuyst. hildegard@lesballetscdela.be
newsitem added on 18.10.'17
22.11.'19
les ballets C de la B supports HART BOVEN HARD www.hartbovenhard.be
newsitem added on 22.11.'19
