Dance Hub residency for Zoltan Vakulya at STUK
Upon an open call from WSF, the 2-week residency was appointed to Zoltan Vakulya for April 2020 to work on his new creation Burnt. Due to Covid the planning of this creation as well as the residency in STUK was rescheduled several times. Finally a one week residency took place in STUK in January 2021, matching the availability of the artist and of studios space in STUK. While the original residency was planned in Soetezaal, the actual residency in January 2021 took place in our Studio, and happened in an earlier stage of the postponed creation.
Zoltan Vakulya had performed at STUK earlier in the work of choreographers Vera Tussing and Albert Quesada.
The residency for Burnt was the first time he came to work in STUK on the development of his own work. Burnt is a collaboration with Taiwanese dance artist Chen-Wei Lee. Together they have been working under the umbrella of lee/vakulya since 2016.
A piece for three dancers and one musician, Burnt explores burnout as a collective, social phenomenon. In a relentless drive of action and effort, three dancers burn their energy into a danced rat race—a dance that mirrors a widely shared feeling of unrest and exhaustion.
During this residency in STUK, Zoltàn worked on his own, exploring ways of visually supporting the core idea of the work using lights and reflective materials.
The première of Burnt finally took place in nona, Mechelen (BE) on 26/10/2022.
STUK coproduced the creation (outside of the frame of Life Long Burning) and will present it in the 2023-2024 season.