any attempt will end in crushed bodies and shattered bones

With any attempt will end in crushed bodies and shattered bones, Jan Martens is for the first time fully turning his attention to the main stage. A production about the power that lies in being out of step, performed by a seventeen-strong, atypical corps de ballet made up of unique personalities.

The heterogeneous group of dancers between the ages of 16 and 69, with diverse backgrounds and track records, find and strengthen each other on stage. In any attempt (...) they seek their own voice within the dance and beyond, looking for an idiom that fits them like a glove. One by one they claim their place on stage, without cutting off the others for all that. A horizontal exercise in giving each other the necessary space, while being careful not to steal the limelight. In times of extreme polarization, this group sets social dogmas aside to recognize and embrace a range of distinct identities. Being uninhibitedly themselves – in both life and art – with the stage as their ideological testing ground.

Jan Martens does not hesitate to place the ecstatic next to the intimist, the shameless next to the exhausting. Supported by a soundtrack that consists of protest songs from different ages – from Henryk Górecki via Max Roach & Abbey Lincoln to Kae Tempest, any attempt (...) is an exhausting, emotional choreography, an ode to civil disobedience.

Presented by STUK.

More info

www.grip.house

choreography Jan Martens dance Ty Boomershine, Truus Bronkhorst, Jim Buskens, Baptiste Cazaux, Zoë Chungong, Piet Defrancq, Naomi Gibson, Kimmy Ligtvoet, Cherish Menzo, Steven Michel, Gesine Moog, Dan Mussett, Wolf Overmeire, Tim Persent, Courtney May Robertson, Laura Vanborm, Loeka Willems understudies Pierre Bastin, Georgia Boddez, Wannes Labath, Zora Westbroek, Lia Witjes Poole artistic assistance Anne-Lise Brevers lighting design Jan Fedinger assistance lighting design Vito Walter costume design Cédric Charlier assistance costume design Alexandra Sebbag, Thibault Kuhn advice Marc Vanrunxt, Renée Copraij, Rudi Meulemans, Siska Baeck text fragment Spring by Ali Smith Copyright © 2019, Ali Smith, used by permission of The Wylie Agency (UK) Limited music Concerto pour Clavecin et Cordes Op 40 Réf Im: 108884 Musique de Henryk Mikolaj Górecki © PWM Editions représenté par Alphonse Leduc Editions Musicales, People’s Faces written by Kae Tempest and Dan Carey © Published and Administered by Domino Publishing Company Limited (50%) and MANATA LTD Administrated by Warner/Chappell Music Belgium N.V. (50%), Triptych: Prayer/Protest/Peace written by Maxwell Roach © Published by Milma Publishing Company Administered by Kobalt Music Publishing Limited technical direction Michel Spang touring technicians Valentijn Weyn/Bennert Vancottem production management Sylvie Svanberg production assistance Marie Luyten (internship), Saskia Vervoort business management Klaartje Oerlemans business support Lotte De Mont, Ruud Van Moorleghem communications Sam Loncke production GRIP in collaboration with Dance On Ensemble international distribution A Propic / Line Rousseau, Marion Gauvent coproduction deSingel (Antwerp, BE), Theater Freiburg (DE), Sadler’s Wells (London, UK), Julidans (Amsterdam, NL), Festival d'Avignon (FR), Le Gymnase CDCN Roubaix Hauts-de-France (FR), Norrlandsoperan (Umeå, SE), La Bâtie - Festival de Genève & l’ADC - Association pour la Danse Contemporaine Genève (CH), tanzhaus nrw (Düsseldorf, DE), Le Parvis Scène Nationale Tarbes-Pyrénéés (Tarbes, FR), La Danse en grande forme (CNDC - Angers, Malandain Ballet Biarritz, La Manufacture - CDCN Nouvelle-Aquitaine Bordeaux - La Rochelle, CCN de Caen en Normandie, L’échangeur - CDCN Hauts-de-France, CCN de Nantes, CCN d’Orléans, Atelier de Paris / CDCN, Collectif Fair-e / CCN de Rennes et de Bretagne, Le Gymnase | CDCN Roubaix | Hauts-de-France, PÔLE-SUD CDCN / Strasbourg et La Place de La Danse - CDCN Toulouse Occitanie), Perpodium (BE) with the support of De Grote Post (Ostend, BE), CCNO - Centre Chorégraphique National d'Orléans & Théâtre d’Orléans, Charleroi Danse (BE), December Dance (Concertgebouw and CC Brugge) (BE) with the financial support of the Flemish Government, the city of Antwerp, Tax Shelter of the Belgian Federal Government, Cronos Invest thanks to Mr. Jean Chabert (STANLEY/STELLA)
photo Phile Deprez