/Belgium/
This guest-performance is part of the project “The living and the digital body“ supported by the National Culture Fund.
“The Goldberg Variations” is a reflection on the state of dance today, on the state of democracy, on the past and the future, and on different forms of physicality.
The title of the performance not only evokes the famous music of Bach, but also the solo by Steve Paxton – an iconic moment in the history of Western dance. Dancers Oskar Stalpaert (Platform-K), Michiel Vandevelde, and Audrey Merilus get to work with Bach’s compositions and Steve Paxton’s choreography. They take a close look at forty years of development of all kinds of dance practices.
How open, democratic and accessible is dance today? What body images do we prefer, which do we prefer not to see?
The music is performed live by accordionist Vincent Van Amsterdam. The polyphony that speaks from the numerous variations in Bach’s music reflects at the different layers of this dance performance.
Michiel Vandevelde started his dance career as a youngster at ”fABULEUS” and afterwards studied at “P.A.R.T.S.”. He is a choreographer, curator, programmer, writer and opinion-maker. His political and artistic activism is the common thread running through everything he does. Michiel was artistic leader of “Bâtard”, a festival aiming to give a platform to young, international artists in Brussels and has been part of the artistic team of Extra City Kunsthal in Antwerp. Between 2017 and 2021 he was an artist-in-residence at “Kaaitheater”, Brussels. Last season, he started working as a performing arts programmer at “DE SINGEL”, Antwerp. He is also the creative ambassador of the city of Leuven. From a young age he has been interested in creating and being part of a collective dynamic. Even now he keeps on searching for social, economical and cultural alternatives to the dominant mindset of our current society. As a choreographer he alternates between working for his own organization Disagree and various others such as ”fABULEUS”, “Platform-K”, “PACT Zollverein”, etc.