Sa 18.11.23
- Ghent (BE), Studio laGeste
Ballrooms
Andrew Graham
laGeste & l'Autre Maison
'What a celebration those Ballrooms are! You get the chance to dance for an entire week with a diverse group of people. It's both a learning experience and a joyful one. And as the cherry on top, there are the final Ballrooms, where everyone is invited to join us.'
Maarten - deelnemer
'So much creativity. So many different bodies moving as one. And a great excuse to wear my Perlefine earrings again.'
Eddie - deelnemer
'There was an instant good vibe. Everyone was truly enthusiastic and committed. There are few places where such a great atmosphere develops so quickly.'
Wim - deelnemer
'An incredible, emotional and physical journey. An evolving community of emotional and physical intelligence, intimacy and challenges A landscape of merging experiences, traditions, expertise, expectations, surprises, encounters, colourful personalities merge. There is so much fun and energy generated into the atmosphere.
An unspoken language. A weaving of fragile and uncertain boundaries of beauty and glittering bodies creating and moving the space...a vibration of individual souls!'
Tijen Lawton
info production >
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Ballrooms is Andrew Graham's new project at laGeste in autumn 2023. It uses the framework of a ball to kill a few birds with one stone. It focuses on the development of new partner dances and reimagines ballroom dancing with its classic gender patterns. And it uses the achievements of ballroom culture from New York in the 1970s: the safe haven for a marginalised community perfecting its own codes and dance styles to great virtuosity.
At the same time, Ballrooms expresses the ambition, through performance, to create a meeting place in the city for people whose paths would not immediately cross without Ballrooms: dancers with disabilities, the queer community, refugees, members of the laGeste choir (from last summer's particularly successful Mein Gent) and participants in laGeste's inclusive workshops.
By taking the framework of the ball as a formal starting point, Graham creates space to maintain a certain fluidity in the division of roles between performer and spectator, between professional and amateur, between rehearsal, improvisation and demonstration. The sharp distinction between these roles in a classical theatre setting gives way to a non-hierarchical space that invites participation without in turn becoming coercive. The large laGeste Studio at Bijlokekaai is the perfect place for this.
The scenography is in the hands of Vera Martynov, Russian theatre maker in exile in Marseille. Musically, various collaborations will be entered: with a number of DJs, but also with the laGeste choir that breaks into each performance with surprising harmonies. Both audience and performers can update their looks using costumes and props from the stock of les ballets C de la B (Gardenia, etc.).
The performance consists of several well-defined parts: live music, catwalk, singing together, guided and framed dance improvisation, demonstration of the newly developed partner dances. During preparation and rehearsals, Andrew Graham is assisted by varying artists: the aforementioned Vera Martynov, British crip dancer Dan Daw and Belgian formation Gilles Polet and Arno Ferrera (of the acclaimed circus duo Cuir) and Tijen Lawton.
Direction, however, is tightly in the hands of Andrew Graham, a central figure in laGeste's work as a choreographer. His company l'Autre Maison, based in Marseille, inspired laGeste to set up an inclusive operation in Ghent. After weekly workshops since April 2021, the time has come to include that necessary preparatory work in the heart of the operation: the creation of new productions.
Ballrooms is a first step to that end.
credits >
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concept & direction Andrew Graham
with Dan Daw, Arno Ferrera, Gilles Polet, Tijen Lawton, laGeste koor o.l.v. Steven Prengels
scenography Vera Martynov
music DJ David Fouquaert, DJ-School Gent
production laGeste & l'Autre Maison
supported by City of Ghent, Flemish Authorities and the Belgian Federal Government's Tax Shelter measure through Flanders Tax Shelter
calendar (3) >
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Sa 02.12.23
- Ghent (BE), Studio laGeste
Sa 16.12.23
- Ghent (BE), Studio laGeste
practical >
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Mixability Workshops en Open Studio
when from 13.11 till 17.11| from 27.11 till 1.12| from 11.12 till 15.12
hours - planning
where Studio laGeste | Bijlokekaai 7, 9000 Ghent
Ballrooms
when 18.11 | 2.12 | 16.12
timing from 17.00 till 20.00
where Studio laGeste | Bijlokekaai 7, 9000 Ghent
accessibility The studio is wheelchair accessible
'pay what you can' at the entrance of Ballrooms
DJ David Fouquaert, DJ-School Gent
pictures >
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© Sofie De Backere
