"Darkness is absence of light"

The Black pice:
"But one is all it takes"

“The Black piece” made by Ann Van De Broek (in collaboration with WArd/waRD) takes audiences into the gloom to find that other black, filled of movement and empty at the same time. The production of Flemish choreographer makes you ask yourself if what you see is real or not? When and how do you recognize it?

The performance starts without lights: the man from your right starts to laugh hysterically, few performers are walking behind you. This cabalistic atmosphere takes you immediately into the 

darkness. This darkness pulls you into the depth of black, where the essences have double meanings: old becomes new or young; man becomes woman; silence becomes more exciting; what you see is just a hallucination.

The darkness exists by the light. The choreographer spotlights the idea of life - it begins in a black capacity. Therefore, the great amount of light was used to shine five dancers lining up in front of the audience and was there to show their impulsive and expressive movements, strong physicality, nature of the body. In an instant theirs synchronized phrase disintegrates and black returns back. Chaotic state takes over. 

The Black piece:
"The reality"

The Cameraman (Bernie van Velzen) is the person who lead the situation. Only with him you are able to see what is happening. Moreover, Ann Van De Broek plays with the spectators and show "live" filming images and unreality, as if it was a real life, where you would make your own decisions and look through your own perspective. When you are in a black “sphere”, all you senses are alert. Therefore, when the stage is not illuminated, we do hear sounds, which are always supporting the performance.However, the musical line of the spectacle do not stay only with random sounds, it is developing to the thrilled voice of Gregory Frateur, whose singing makes you feel helpless and powerful simultaneously.

There are five performers on the stage: 3 men and 2 women, who move with a lot of energy. While they are in the stage, they can easily switch theirs own characters, with somebody else: a traipsing woman in a tight skirt starts to behave as she were a man playing with black matryshka or the other dancer, 

thumbing through the notebook, would dance in convulsive way. All of them show an 

magnificent presence and excellent technique skills, which is always inspiring.

The Black piece:
"Lining up" 

Ann Van De Broek’s black can be all sorts of shapes, whether it is erotic, fearful, exciting or 

contradictory. The way she creates the whole piece felt for me really impulsive, but at the same time 

organic. This piece should been seen by everyone who is interested in dance and theatre.


If you would like to get more information about this company, choreographer or even find next performance day, there is the link, which can help you:
http://www.wardward.be/e-choreo-huidige.html


Also, there is a small trailer of "The Black piece" by Ann Van De Broek on Vimeo channel:

http://vimeo.com/97118105