In Burnt [ the eternal long now ], LEE\VAKULYA choreographically explores burnout as a collective, social phenomenon. In a relentless drive of action and effort, three dancers burn their energy into a danced rat race—a dance that mirrors a widely shared feeling of unrest and exhaustion.
choreography LEE\VAKULYA | direction Zoltán Vakulya | performers Chen-Wei Lee, Esse Vanderbruggen & Charlotte Petersen | music Gryllus Abris | dramaturgy Alice Van der Wielen-Honinckx & Zoltán Vakulya | light design Bert Vandijck & Xavi Moreno | decor & artistic support Ding-Jeh Wang | production kunstencentrum nona | coproduction CCNR Lyon, STUK Leuven, Voo?uit Gent, NTCH Taipei, Tanzplattform Rhein Main, L’animal a L’esquena Celra, Staatstheater Darmstadt, Thor Brussels
Although a very lonely experience, burnout is a social phenomenon that we collectively endure, but also unwillingly allow and sustain. Burnt brings it to the foreground as a shared problem that shouldn’t remain confined to private spheres, as if taboo. We don’t burnout en masse because of personal flaws, kids, or an unexpected loss, but because overwork, overwhelm and anxiety are structural to how our lives are built. Never have we been so busy, and never has our future been more hopeless. Capitalist economy, when left unleashed by politics, generates a systemic overdrive that doesn’t only push social bonds and mental health toward disintegration, but also atrophies our imagination, and obviously destroys natural environments.
Taking this reality as point of departure, Zoltan Vakulya and Chen-Wei Lee created a dance that explores extreme fatigue in relation to others. Chen-Wei Lee, Charlotte Petersen and Esse Vanderbruggen drive themselves into exhaustion, both together and alone. Sweat and determination are shared, eagerness feeds even more eagerness, and drives their common motor into overheat. The question we are left with is if the beauty of their efforts to support each other doesn’t tragically trigger their collective downfall.
There was once a Hungarian filmmaker who said that there is no film about love nor about hate. Only about someone who feels love or hate for another person. That helps me to let go of that. Crucial for us is the desire to work with different layers. One is working with the tired body, so we deconstruct burnout to understand and translate segments.
Zoltán Vakulya
This new show is in the same vein of previous creations: Together Alone (2016) was an intense duet in which they navigated between partnership and empathy through the Siamese phenomenon. In kNOwn FACE (2019), they embody influencers in our selfie culture.
Their work has been awarded and nominated for the Taishin Art Prize for Best Creation 2016, 2019, 2021 (Taiwan), Total Theatre Award 2017 (UK), Asian Art Awards 2017 (UK), TECO Award for Dance Arts 2020 (Taiwan) and Jeon Mak Arts Award 2017 (South Korea).
