Contre-jour

When people or animals move along a loose surface of sand or soil, they leave traces. These prints made by feet or paws ‘describe’ what’s underfoot and remind us of the original meaning of the word choreography: ‘to write with movement’.

Contre-jour is set on a stretch of sand. Five performers walk, run, hop, move like cats on hands and feet to create a diversity of ‘im-pressions’ - only to erase them to make way for new symbols, new choreography. But also to vanish, because leaving traces can be dangerous: you might be entering someone’s property illegally or trying to pass a border unseen.

In Contre-jour, the movements leave impressions, in the loose sand but also in the spectator’s memory. Five bodies pass by through the desolate landscape, as if it were a film. Five individuals helping one another as a group in collective movements, solos and duets. In dance and live singing. Solace and resistance reverberate through the interplay of togetherness and solitude.

Contre-jour is the latest performance by not standing, the company led by Alexander Vantournhout, where every creation originates from fundamental movement study. After the solo Aneckxander, the duet Through the Grapevine and the location performance Screws, all selected for TheaterFestival, Alexander Vantournhout now - for the first time - chooses to fully embrace the role of choreographer and gives the stage to a cast of five performers with diverse backgrounds in dance, musical, circus and more.