If you are in New York, Go to BAM’s Next Wave Festival for Company Thor’s To the Ones I Love. The festival runs from September 29 to October 1st. From the Company Thor site “To the Ones I Love is a return to pure dance within an aesthetic composition. For the first time, Smits works with dancers of African origin and blends his dance language with their specific individual and physical richness. The nine dancers rule over a white, nearly empty stage, literally transported by Johan Sebastian Bach’s music, by its overflowing generosity and immense virtuosity. There is no story; the message does not direct itself to the mind but to the senses. Created for Compagnie Thor’s 20 years of existence, To the Ones I Love tells about the body in movement, the pleasure of dancing, and wishes to lovingly share this energy with the spectator.
In To the Ones I Love, Thierry Smits puts nine dancers of African descent on the stage. More precisely, for this choice is a vital one, he uses nine dancers whose complexions hark back to Africa.
Thierry Smits’s message is not political, however. It deliberately sets out to be aesthetic and refuses all concessions to exoticism. The principle is to set bodies used to “Western” choreographic techniques but nevertheless shaped by other traditions and dances in motion. They dance in a white decor and are literally transported by Johan Sebastian Bach’s music, by its overflowing generosity and immense virtuosity. The challenge is obviously to manage the unexpected outcomes of the meeting of different cultural references.
Bach’s music, within a soundscape by Maxime Bodson, carries this abstract choreography. There is no story; the message does not direct itself to the mind but to the senses. To the Ones I Love is a return to pure dance within an aesthetic composition and tells about the body in movement, the pleasure of dancing, and wishes to lovingly share this energy with the spectator.” Here is what you can expect :
To the ones I love – Thierry Smits / Compagnie Thor (extrait) from Charleroi/Danses on Vimeo.
