Bal Brut opens KANAL!

KANAL, the new museum in Brussels which will open the doors of the renovated Citroën garage on 28 November, has invited for Bal Brut, Andrew Graham’s participatory performance in which the dance floor belongs to all of us. Everyone is welcome during the week of 30 November to 4 December to help build the ball together at KANAL. It is also a unique opportunity to discover this remarkable building.

Bal Brut welcomes everyone onto the dance floor for an unfiltered thé dansant where all kinds of music are mixed together. And we do the same with people. Mixing makes people more beautiful!

This inclusive dance celebration builds on the idea of mixability. Our bodies are vulnerable and we are, at best, only temporarily able-bodied. Sooner or later, we all become worn down in some way: we may lose a leg, gain weight, barely be able to move or only with assistive devices, lose our sight, or struggle mentally. This dance event creates a safe space for all these bodies, because we all move — otherwise, we are dead.

What makes this ball different is that a number of people on the dance floor come prepared: people who have worked on something during the previous week, who have created new group dances, or who have cool moves to share. Call them artistic interventions or transformations. And you, too, can be part of it.

What does that involve? You come to Kanal between November 30 and December 4, from 1:00 PM to 9:00 PM, and share your ideas with others. Every afternoon there is room to experiment and to share your own movement language through encounters with others. Every evening from 5:00 PM to 7:00 PM, there is a workshop with an expert in waacking, tango, dabke, or pole dancing. A day full of inspiration then flows into a free jam session until 9:00 PM. Choreographer Andrew Graham from l’Autre Maison in Marseille guides the entire process together with the whole laGeste team.

In this way, we collectively build the ball where these unique encounters and creations come together in the form of small dance improvisations and demonstrations, while a DJ keeps everyone dancing — including those who simply wander in.