“THE DOG DAYS ARE OVER” 

by Jan Martens

date of performance 13/01/2016

"When you ask a person to jump, 

his attention is mostly directed toward the act of jumping 

and the mask falls so that the real person appears."

This is the quote witch inspired Jan Martens to create the performance 

“THE DOG DAYS ARE OVER” 

It is a performance dedicated to the jump. The choreography tries to find the real persons behind the dancers. To do so Jan Martens created a complicated structure for eight dancers that the they needed to follow. and they also tried to do this in unison. Because of the complicated structure it is almost impossible to not make a mistake. the dancers do the best they can to be together and to do the choreography without any mistakes. But when they do make a mistake the true nature of the person is revealed.

With this performance jan martens asks the audience different questions. ‘Where lies the thin line between art and entertainment? Who are we as an audience, coming to see dancers suffer as if we are watching bullfights in an arena?  Is contemporary dance striptease for the upper class?’ 

He also made a statement with his choice of costume. he chose to have almost no costume. The shorts leggings and sportbras left no place for imagination. You could see every movement they were making, every muscle they used to jump and move could be seen.   

He gives us the possibility to shift between watching the dancers jump and our own thoughts. he does that because he wants to give us the time to think what the reason is for us to come and watch his choreography.

In his choreography he plays with the suspense of letting the dancers stop for a split second and than let them continue. Those moments are for me the most interesting moments of the piece. During this moments you get the feeling that the dancers could brake any second. But when they start to jump again it seems that they regain their power because it lokes even stronger than before. 

Around the middle of the piece he changes the lighting and he ads music to it. I didn’t think that the music had a lot of value because after a few minutes you ignore  the music because te dancers were strong enough that te music was even more on the background. 

I was amazed after the performance by the strength of the dancers. I could not imagine myself doing the same what they did. Even when they had a cramped muscle they kept on going. and wile jumping they would try to relax the muscle.Thats why I liked this performance a lot. I admire the dancers for there endurance.  

CREDITS:  

Choreographer: Jan Martens

Dancers: Cherish Menzo, Piet Defrancq, Julien Josse, Laura Vanborm, Naomi Gibson, Nelle Hens, Steven Michel and Kimmy Ligtvoet 

Understudies: Morgane Ribbens, Ilse Ghekiere, Victor Dumont , Connor Schumacher

Light designe: Jan Fedinger 

Dramaturgy: Renée Copraij

Production: JAN&ICKamsterdam