Five dancers reveal simultaneously and singularly an energetic landscape, a charged terrain of options. Their actions are manifestations of surging phenomena, imperceptible but always active.
Violet is a steep descent into a maelstrom, a swirl of energetic patterns and kinetic sculptures full of detail, partnered live on stage by musician Brendan Dougherty on electronics and percussion.
After a period of cross-breeding with other art forms and collaborations, Meg Stuart turns in Violet to movement as its primary motor, pairing choreography with an alchemy of the senses. Perhaps the most abstract piece so far in her long standing career, Violet bears Stuart’s unique signature, an art that hones a frail ‘condition humaine’ in its intense physical emergence.
“Propelled by loud sound and booming silence, Meg Stuart’s new choreography channels pentup
energies – natural, musical and alchemical – and slams with the force of a tsunami.”
Oonagh Duckworth, The Bulletin, September 2011
“This piece is not for the timid or sensitive. Like a drug trip, a magnification of your own state of mind is possible, since Violet plays with experience of the present moment. Though Stuart’s work tends to be challenging, there is something trancelike and quite unforgettable about the journey.”
Alena Giesche, Thalo Magazine, March 2012
Meg Stuart is an American choreographer and dancer living and working in Berlin and Brussels. After completing her studies in New York City and following an invitation from the Klapstuk festival in Leuven, she created her first evening-length piece, Disfigure Study, which launched her choreographic career in Europe. Stuart founded her own company, Damaged Goods, in 1994, through which she has realized more than 30 productions, ranging from solos to large-scale choreographies, site-specific creations and improvisation projects. She has collaborated with many artists, including Philipp Gehmacher, Doris Dziersk, Ann Hamilton, Claudia Hill, Benoît Lachambre and Hahn Rowe. On the invitation of intendant Johan Simons, Meg Stuart/Damaged Goods became associate artist to the Münchner Kammerspiele in 2010. Damaged Goods has an on-going collaboration with the Kaaitheater (Brussels) and the HAU Hebbel am Ufer (Berlin). In 2008 Meg Stuart received a Bessie Award for her body of works and the Flemish Culture Award in the performing arts category and in 2012, she was awarded the Konrad-Wolf-Preis by the Akademie der Künste in Berlin.
choreography: Meg Stuart
created with Alexander Baczynski-Jenkins, Varinia Canto Vila,
Adam Linder, Kotomi Nishiwaki, Roger Sala Reyner
performed by Marcio Kerber Canabarro, Varinia Canto Vila,
Renan Martins de Oliveira, Kotomi Nishiwaki, Roger Sala Reyner
live music: Brendan Dougherty
dramaturgy: Myriam Van Imschoot
scenography: Janina Audick – light design: Jan Maertens – costumes: Nina Kroschinske
technical director: Oliver Houttekiet – sound technician: Roy Carroll
production manager: Eline Verzelen – tour manager: Annabel Heyse
assistant scenography: Julia Kneusels – assistant costumes: Nina Witkiewicz
assistant production: Mira Moschallski
thanks to Ulrike Bodammer, Eric Andrew Green, Claudia Hill, Leyla Postalcioglu, Anna-Luise Recke, Annegret Riediger, Jozef Wouters
production: Damaged Goods (Brussels)
co-production: PACT Zollverein (Essen), Festival d’Avignon (Avignon), Festival d’Automne à Paris (Paris), Les Spectacles vivants – Centre Pompidou (Paris), La Bâtie-Festival de Genève (Geneva), Kaaitheater (Brussels)
in collaboration with RADIALSYSTEM V and Uferstudios (Berlin)
with special support of Hauptstadtkulturfonds (Berlin)
Meg Stuart & Damaged Goods are supported by the Flemish authorities and the Flemish Community Commission
[photo: Tine Declerck]
