Contre-jour

When people and 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 duet Through the Grapevine (2020), and the location performance SCREWS (2019), both selected for THEATERFESTIVAL 2020, 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.

Production: not standing

Coproduction: Kunstencentrum VIERNULVIER, Ghent (BE), Cirque-Théâtre Elbeuf (FR), Le CENTQUATRE, Paris (FR), Theater op de Markt - Dommelhof, Neerpelt (BE), Theater Freiburg (DE), Charleroi Danse (BE), Lithuanian Dance Information Center, Vilnius (LT), Peeping Tom, Brussels (BE), Les Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg (LU), Maillon, Théâtre de Strasbourg – Scène européenne (FR)

With the support of the Flemish Government and Tax Shelter

Alexander Vantournhout is artist-in-residence at Kunstencentrum VIERNULVIER in Ghent and associated artist of le CENTQUATRE Paris and Cirque-théâtre Elbeuf. He is cultural ambassador of the city of Roeselare and is also supported by Fondation BNP Paribas for the development of his projects. 

“With Contre-jour we experience a delicate and contemplative opus, full of movement discoveries, which plays with purity and naturalness rather than the spectacular, in a soothing atmosphere of sisterhood.” — La Terrasse

“With Contre-jour, choreographer Vantournhout shows himself from his most danceable side: no acrobatic play with objects as in Aneckxander (2015), no virile challenge of body proportions as in Through the Grapevine (2020), but a pure, almost contemplative dance performance in which form control prevails over spectacle.”
— ★★★★ De Morgen

Concept & choreography: Alexander Vantournhout

Created with & performed by: Philomène Authelet, Tina Afiyan-Breiova, Noémi Devaux / Esse Vanderbruggen, Ariadna Gironès Mata & Aymara Parola / Jessica Eirado Enes

Research collaborator: Emmi Väisänen

Dramaturgy: Rudi Laermans & Sébastien Hendrickx

Rehearsal director: Maria Ferreira Silva, Axel Guérin, Lodie Kardouss, Anneleen Keppens Lise Vachon & Esse Vanderbruggen 

Vocal coach: Fabienne Seveillac

Light design: Harry Cole

Costumes: Sofie Durnez

Videography: Stanislav Dobak

Sound design: Bob Hermans

Special thanks to: Kim Amankwaa, Willy Cauwelier, Euridike De Beul, Tom de With & Astrid Sweeney

Contributed to the research: Nina Goddéris, Macarena Bielski Lopez, Antoine Dupuy, Cecily Lewelling, Zoe Lakhnati, Charlotte Cétaire, Abigail Aleksander, Suka Horn, Maria De Dueñas Lopez & Patricia Hastewell Puig

Company manager: Esther Maas

Technical production: Bram Vandeghinste & Rinus Samyn

Production & tour manager: Aïda Gabriëls

Diffusion: Frans Brood Productions

"In the beginning, the dancers are still cautiously discovering the sand and each other. Later, they clamber over each other's bodies and together they transform into an impressive fan, which keeps spinning like a perpetuum mobile. (...) We see them crawling, running and jumping through a huge sand plain, leaving traces like animals in the desert. Their imprints allow us to reconstruct the course of dance, which is the most ephemeral of all art forms." — De Standaard