Retina Dance Company • WORLD PREMIERE
ANTIPODE
by FILIP VAN HUFFEL (BELGIUM)
JULY 17 2009
Hamburger Sprechwerk, 8 pm
(ca. 60 minutes) • Public discussion with the artist(s) after the performance
Five men – four dancers and a double bass player perform a raw and exhilarating production of extremes. The five individuals share the same stage but are on their own path, with no shared goals and no fear, exerting their own physicality, exploring their own extremes. They collide, caress, fight, play and reject as they stampede along their pathway with commitment and single vision.
After sell out tours in Belgium with his band Aranis, acclaimed Belgian composer/ musician Joris Vanvinckenroye joins Retina to create the soundscore for Antipode. Joris manipulates the sounds of his double bass acoustically and electronically to create a rich musical landscape that drives the movement with percussive power and supports the flow with manipulated soundscapes.
Retina is an ambitious contemporary dance company artistically led by Filip Van Huffel. Working in Belgium and the UK, Retina produce dance performances of differing scales; from theatre performances to large-scale site-specific events, multi-media projects and a wide range of accessible participatory residencies and workshops.
Filip Van Huffel’s work emphasises pure movement that affects the viewer theatrically through a physically vibrant movement quality.
Filip Van Huffel
trained with a range of contemporary dance teachers from all over Europe. He danced for Claudio Bernardo, Air de C and Company Thor in Belgium, Frey Faust in Germany and Random Dance Company in London before he co-founded Retina in 1995 with Sacha Lee. Retina has produced twelve pieces that have toured internationally and since 2000, Filip is doing the artistic direction by himself. Also, Filip is regularly commissioned to create independent works for other companies, like for example the South Bank Centre London, Higher Institute for Dance in Belgium, Akademi, Tardis, Loop, Shobana Jeyasingh, StopGap, Ludus and X:ida Dance Companies. He teaches workshops internationally and has created a Dance for the Camera production Freeze for BBC/ACE. Retina Dance Company is an ambitious contemporary dance company led artistically by Filip Van Huffel, who produces dance performances of differing scales; from theatre performances to large-scale site-specific events, multi-media projects and a wide range of accessible and educational projects. Working from Belgium and the UK, Filip Van Huffel has established a particular working methodology that emphasizes his investigation of pure movement. It is a technique which affects the viewer theatrically through a physically vibrant quality of movement that is uniquely Retina. Collaborations with a movement analyst, composers, musicians, visual artists, film directors, light-, set-, and costume-designers shape the work in a particular way that is stark in its setting and inhabited by an edge of beauty and humanity. The unique dual nationality of the company has resulted in extensive support and influence from both Belgium and England and has resulted in an approach and look that is truly European. Filip works closely with producer Natalie Gordon, who is a trained Laban/Bartenieff Movement Analyst. Natalie’s work with Retina incorporates training for the dancers as well as an analytical eye on choreography. Laban/Bartenieff training aids the dancer’s functionality, efficiency and expressivity and encourages a full range of dynamics. Filip’s adoption of Laban/Bartenieff principles within his work adds depth, clarity and theatricality to his productions.
Choreographer: Filip Van Huffel
Dancers: Robert Guy, Steven Martin, Matthew Slater, Brian Tjon Tjauw Liem
Composer: Joris Vanvinkenroye
Antipode was made possible with support from Arts Council England, ccBe Antwerpen and Nottingham City Council.
This performance is a cooperation with dance beyond borders.
www.dancekiosk-hamburg.de
www.dancebeyondborders.de
www.sharingarts.de
www.retinadance.com