Anechoic (2014)

Casting & credits

Choreography Cindy Van Acker Choreographic assistants Stéphanie Bayle, Cyril Durand, Gasselin Alexane Poggi Music Pan Sonic Dancers at creation P.A.R.T.S. : Régis Badel, Liza Baliasnaja, Sidney Barnes, Mario Barrantes Espinoza, Amanda Barrio, Lucas Bassereau, Solomon Berrio-Allen, Tina Breiová, Victoria Bryzgalova, Julie Charbonnier, Guilhem Chatir, Nikita Chumakov, Lav Crnäeviä, Suelem Cristina De Oliveira Da Silva, Eleni Ellada Damianou, Youri De Gussem, Vladimir Dziomba, Anika Edström Kawaji, Bilal Elhad, Fannie Falk, Efrat Galai, Cassiel Gaube, Frank Gizycki, Stefan Govaart, Gorka Gurrutxaga Arruti, Robin Haghi, Yuika Hashimoto, Ting-Yun Kuo, Louis Nam Le Van Ho, Viktor Már Leifsson, Theodore Livesey, Karoliina Loimaala, Matilde Carvalho Da Mata, Jolie Ngemi, Akiyoshi Nita, Maya Oliva, Jared Onyango, Rüta Pakalne, Priyabrata Panigrahi, Noé Pellencin, Laura-Maria Poletti, Emeric Rabot, Kamola Rashidova, Patricia Saliba, Souleymane Sanogo, Sami Similä, Jacob Storer, Sien Van Dycke, Eileen Van Os, Adriano Lázaro Vicente, Charlotte Viegas, Anne Vigeland, Jara Vlaeminckx Technique Denis Rollet, Victor Roy Duration 35 min Creation 4 – 6 July 2014, Expeditie Dansand Festival, Ostend Administration Sophie Mercier, Cindy Janiaud Diffusion Tutu Production, Véronique Maréchal Production Cie Greffe Coproduction P.A.R.T.S – Vrijstaat O

About

Anechoic was created on a proposal by Katleen Vanlangendonck for the Expeditie Dansand Festival organised by Vrijstaat O in Ostend in 2014. This piece for the 53 dancers of P.A.R.T.S was performed on the beach in Ostend and at De Schorre. It was then presented at the Théâtre de Vidy in Lausanne and on the Berges de Vessy in Geneva.

The work Anechoic by Cindy Van Acker is written for 53 dancers. It is to be seen against the background of a vast landscape and begins at dusk. At first the dancers are side by side and form a dark line in the distance. In the end, they are scattered on the ground, close to the audience. In between those two moments, they have crossed over one hundred meters into nightfall and silence, have been fitted in pairs, have abandoned their dark clothes on the ground and broke the line and the original rhythm.

More than a dance, Anechoic builds a landscape which gives out gradually to contemplation and rules bodies in motion. Its score develops in space at different scales. Far away, the 53 dancers form flocks, oscillate and settle like notes on a musical staff. Approaching, their mass composes a cohesive society but never cemented, never still. When the group disintegrates, the dancers draw a torrent of shapes, as if one had spilled on the ground a heap of gems while light and sound flood the space. Duets grow, absorb each other and make in canon an implicit drama.

The bodies are plastic, and this plasticity puts them in direct relation to the landscape. Behind the broad expanse, space is empty, but not inert. Energized, it is full of vibrant asperities and traces left by the passage of the group. The landscape and the dance are considered together here. And it is this dance of space which is also to be seen. For Anechoic actually intensifies the landscape and the experiences that we can make out of it. — AD