AH | HA [2014]


--

Five bodies meet at a locale without a name, perhaps even in the middle of the night. On the rhythm of the circumstances they slowly grow towards one another, the way trash sometimes gathers in a deserted street. But their synergy confers unexpected power on them. They coalesce in one of the most expressive manifestations of humankind: laughter. Resulting in an encounter that becomes a dangerous feast of shared ecstacy.

 

With AH/HA, Voetvolk moves on to the cutting edge of its investigation of the ecstatic body. The performance explores the wealth of plastic variations of the laughing body, making its physical and psychic impact tangible for the viewer.

 

AH/HA is the first group performance of Voetvolk.

 

PRESS CUTTINGS

 

AH/HA is a stunning expierience. **** 1/2*

     by Pieter Tjonck, deMorgen


In AH/HA Lisbeth Gruwez and Maarten Van Cauwenberghe - together Voetvolk - investigate laughter, discovering the engine of society in a performance that absorbs you as the most beautiful sundown imaginable. (...) 

AH/HA is after the solo "It's going to get worse and worse and worse my friend" yet another gem of  a masterpiece by the duo Gruwez & Van Cauwenberghe. This creation, too, impresses with the sizzling dialogue between the dancers and the sound artist. First, you experience the dialogue like you watch a sunset. You gaze, you see and hear more and more, while concurrently being wrapped up by the intoxicating soundscape, together with the dancers. Until the dancers laugh you out of that trance. Then this liberating AH/HA, brilliantly danced with brutal movements, reveals itself as a portrait, built up by pieces of laughter, of the human being grabbing, searching, dancing, fucking, wounding and laughing until the existential void is turned into love. ****

     by Els Van Steenberghe, Knack

 

Gruwez triggers. While others remain stuck in a concept or a gimmick, she manages to drive home a simple and clear idea to the extreme, lifting it up to the point where you do not recognize it anymore as such, but evoking free-floating associations. (...) And her feeling for timing is unequalled: not one single scene, not one second too many or too few. The same holds true for the ingenious soundscape which, like the movements, knows subtle variations and follows the pattern of building up, climax and silence. AH/HA is the perfet symbiosis of soundscape and movement. A performance about loss of control that shows perfect command.

     By Lene Van Langenhove, Etcetera

 

AH/HA, a truly choreographic trip, leads its actors into hypersensitive and precarious spaces. This piece amounts to nothing less than a fierce and deeply affecting saga. 

     By Wilson Le Personnic, Paris Dans

 

Simultaneously funny, intelligent, delicious in its most minute detail, AH/HA is a meditation on the body, driven and affected by a transcending energy.

In other words, it’s exactly the opposite of what a dance performance “should be”, regardless of its style, and a radical departure from the dancer’s viewpoint.

The tour de force of this piece, without a shadow of a doubt, is the “double bind” which requires absolute mastery of motion, in order to emphasize that which the body cannot control.

Magnificent!

     By Agnès Izrine, Dansercanalhistorique

 

The quality and fluidity that allow the emotions and sensations to merge seamlessly throughout this piece owe as much to the presence of the dancers as to the musical accompaniment, which is equally infused by the tone and its multitude of hues. Laughter, the main character in this piece, if shared, is after all the creator of a jubilant dance, which vacillates between the barely perceptible and the grossly exaggerated. A brilliant success…

     By Louise Duterte, Umoove.fr


 



 

 

 


 

 

Concept & choreography

Lisbeth Gruwez

 

Composition, sounddesign & assistance

Maarten Van Cauwenberghe

 

Dance

Mercedes Dassy, Anne-Charlotte Bisoux, Vicente Arlandis, Lisbeth Gruwez, Lucius Romeo-Fromm

 

Styling 

Catherine Van Bree

 

Artistic advisor 

Bart Meuleman

 

Light design 

Harry Cole & Caroline Mathieu

 

Technical director 

Thomas Glorieux

 

Production

Voetvolk vzw

 

Coproduction

Rencontres chorégraphiques internationales de Seine-Saint-Denis, Next Festival, Theater Im Pumpenhaus, Théâtre d'Arras / Tandem Arras-Douai, Dampfzentrale, Le Triangle - Cité de la danse de Rennes, Théâtre La Bastille, Les Brigittines, AndWhatBeside(s)Death, MA scène nationale - Pays de Montbéliard and Troubleyn | Jan Fabre. 

 

Supported by 

NONA, the Flemish Community, the Province of Antwerp & Arcadi Île-de-France/Dispositif d’accompagnements 

 

Diffusion 

Key Performance

Pictures

Videos

Press

dansercanalhistorique.pdf Jun 16 2014
Magistral !
umoove_fr.pdf Jun 17 2014
Souriez vous êtes dansés
paris_danse.pdf Jun 25 2014
Une épopée intense et bouleversante
ah_ha_theaterkrant.pdf Jul 5 2014
Gestileerde analyse van het lachen
20140915120252864.pdf Sep 15 2014
Het Lachende Lijf
ah_ha_tanz-magazine.pdf Oct 1 2014
Tanz Magazine
ahha_llb_111014.pdf Oct 12 2014
Rire jusqu’à l’épuisement
oltre_i_confini_della_risata.pdf Oct 15 2014
Oltre i confini della risata/ danza dell’estasi e del dolore
lisbeth_gruwez_esplora_la_risata_contagiosa.pdf Oct 14 2014
Lisbeth Gruwez esplora la risata 'contagiosa
lisbeth_gruwez_ah_ha_teatro.pdf Oct 16 2014
Lisbeth Gruwez : AH/HA
pumpenhaus_lisbeth_gruwez_gibt_dem_tanz_neue_impulse_-_ruhr_nachrichten.pdf Oct 20 2014
Lisbeth Gruwez gibt dem Tanz neue Impulse
tanztheater_im_pumpenhaus_lachen_bewegt_-_kultur.pdf Oct 19 2014
Lachen bewegt
lachen_tot_de_leegte_liefde_wordt_knackfocus_be.pdf Nov 30 2014
Lachen tot de leegte liefde wordt
we_diepen_de_euforie_uit_de_morgen_ah_ha.pdf Nov 25 2014
"We diepen de euforie uit"
recensione_ah_ha_recensioni_e_articoli_di_mail_orsi_teatro_persinsala_it.pdf Dec 3 2014
Sentire. Muovere. Ridere.
recensie_review_ah_ha_van_voetvolk_bourla_antwerpen.pdf Feb 11 2015
Sublieme voorstelling
le_rire_en_tandem_avec_le_corps_alternative_rock_press.pdf Jan 30 2015
Le rire en tandem avec le corps!
ah_ha_les_montagnes_russes_motionnelles_patwhite_com.pdf Jan 31 2015
Ah/Ha, les montagnes russes émotionnelles
dance_lisbeth_gruwez_s_ah_ha_moment_-_24news_ca.pdf Jan 22 2015
Lisbeth Gruwez's Ah Ha moment
nieuwsblad.pdf Sep 1 2015
Dansende kwibussen
theaterfestival_interview_lisbeth_and_maarten.pdf Sep 10 2015
Onze voorstellingen zijn werkwoorden
theaterfestival_interview_lucius_and_vicente.pdf Sep 11 2015
AH/HA is eigenlijk niet grappig
siobhan_davies_dance_blog_a_review_of_ah_ha_by_lisbeth_gruwez.pdf Oct 27 2015
A review of AH/HA
lisbeth_gruwez_veotolk_ah_ha_-_the_place_-_londondance.pdf Oct 26 2015
Review AH/HA at The Place
ahhatheaterfestivaldestandaard12_06.pdf Jun 12 2015
Keuze theaterfestival 2015

Technical rider

ahha-technicalrider-1.pdf