Belgian choreographer Michiel Vandevelde is taking part in the contemporary dance festival Moving in November in Helsinki, running from 4 – 14.11.21. Dances of Death reflects on the concept of death in our time. New incurable diseases are haunting us, suicide rates are increasing yearly, climate change calls forth images of apocalypses. How can we cope with the idea of death? How would a dance of death be danced today?
In this physically intense performance, seven dancers and one singer evoke a ritual in which they time travel through different associations to dances of death, from the distant past to more recent history. Building upon the ashes of the past, they dance, they breathe, they cry, they laugh, they sing, in a cycle between life and death. Dances of Death gives us a breath-taking picture of what a ‘danse macabre’ might look like today.
Michiel Vandevelde studied dance and choreography at P.A.R.T.S., Brussels. He is active as a choreographer, curator and writer. Political and artistic activism is the common thread running through his work. In his work he investigates the elements that constitute or obstruct the contemporary public sphere. He explores which other social, economic and cultural alternatives we can imagine in order to question, challenge and transform dominant logics and ways of organising. As a curator, Vandevelde has worked for Bâtard festival, Precarious Pavilions, and he is currently connected to Arts Centre DE SINGEL. From 2017 to 2021 Michiel Vandevelde is artist in residence at Kaaitheater, Brussels.
Find more about the performance and the whole festival program at movinginnovember.fi/dances-of-death-2/