TO THE ONES I LOVE - Compagnie Thor
@ Internationale Tanzmesse nrw, Düsseldorf
In To the Ones I Love, Thierry Smits places nine dancers of African descent on the stage. More precisely, for this choice is a vital one, he uses nine dancers whose complexions hark back to Africa. In short, they are dark – either black or of mixed race. These dancers have different nationalities but belong to the world, and the fact that they are scattered over several continents proves that the world belongs to them despite the discriminatory reflexes that are incarnated in today’s immigration policies and talk about national identity. The mixing of races and cultures mocks these retreats behind the walls of identity, defies all categorisation, and transmits a troubling, implacable message of change, for tomorrow humankind will be mixed or it will not be.
Thierry Smits’s message is not political, however. It deliberately sets out to be aesthetic and refuses all concessions to exoticism. The principle is to set bodies used to “Western” choreographic techniques but nevertheless shaped by other traditions and dances in motion. They dance in a white decor and are literally transported by Johan Sebastian Bach’s music, by its overflowing generosity and immense virtuosity. The challenge is obviously to manage the unexpected outcomes of the meeting of different cultural references.
In putting nine bodies sculpted and sublimated by dance and music on the stage, Thierry Smits issues a message of love by giving a metaphorical dimension to the difference of the loved one, for the other one whom one loves is, by definition, different from the one of oneself. To celebrate twenty years of choreographic creation, Thierry Smits is treating himself to a moment of immense pleasure whilst offering his audience, family, friends, and lovers this visual gift, proof of a constantly renewed energy and an endless hunger to love passionately.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGrJz7AirC8
TO THE ONES I LOVE - Compagnie Thor
@ Internationale Tanzmesse nrw, Düsseldorf
In To the Ones I Love, Thierry Smits places nine dancers of African descent on the stage. More precisely, for this choice is a vital one, he uses nine dancers whose complexions hark back to Africa. In short, they are dark – either black or of mixed race. These dancers have different nationalities but belong to the world, and the fact that they are scattered over several continents proves that the world belongs to them despite the discriminatory reflexes that are incarnated in today’s immigration policies and talk about national identity. The mixing of races and cultures mocks these retreats behind the walls of identity, defies all categorisation, and transmits a troubling, implacable message of change, for tomorrow humankind will be mixed or it will not be.
Thierry Smits’s message is not political, however. It deliberately sets out to be aesthetic and refuses all concessions to exoticism. The principle is to set bodies used to “Western” choreographic techniques but nevertheless shaped by other traditions and dances in motion. They dance in a white decor and are literally transported by Johan Sebastian Bach’s music, by its overflowing generosity and immense virtuosity. The challenge is obviously to manage the unexpected outcomes of the meeting of different cultural references.
In putting nine bodies sculpted and sublimated by dance and music on the stage, Thierry Smits issues a message of love by giving a metaphorical dimension to the difference of the loved one, for the other one whom one loves is, by definition, different from the one of oneself. To celebrate twenty years of choreographic creation, Thierry Smits is treating himself to a moment of immense pleasure whilst offering his audience, family, friends, and lovers this visual gift, proof of a constantly renewed energy and an endless hunger to love passionately.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGrJz7AirC8