Residency Lisa Vereertbrugghen at STUK - DISQUIET

In the frame of the Creative Crossroad activity, Lisa Vereertbrugghen was selected by STUK to receive a 2 years structural support by the LLB network that included residencies in Montpellier and Budapest as well as presentations in Leuven and Amsterdam.
Lisa was working on her productions "DISQUIET" and "CELEBRATION".

During her residency in Montpellier, Lisa Vereertbrugghen is working on her production "Celebration".
20.09.2022: club de danse – ICI-CCN de Montpellier

CELEBRATION (working title) (other ideas: DIRTY FOLK or ANTIFOLK)
“a human impulse that has been effectively suppressed ...a desire for collective joy, historically expressed in revels of feasting, costuming and dancing”  EHRENRECH, B., Dancing In The Streets

With this project I wish to extend my knowledge of social dances, which is now centered on hardcore techno, by looking into other kinds of social group dances that are generally called “folk”. I am fascinated by the visual connection between folkdance and techno in terms of patterns of footwork.
Like folk, techno is the succession of simple, repetitive movements of the feet (and minimally the hands), that every- body can do. Both dance-realms also hold a political opposition within: on the one hand they are the expression of togetherness and joy, on the other hand they reflect a rigid structure. Each folk represents a separation from those who are the not-folk, those who don’t belong. In techno the rigid structure is represented by the continuous 4/4 beat that dictates 1 rhythm, to be followed by everybody. In this research I am interested in breaking these structures open and searching for hybrids and polyrhythms that allow this folk to become dirty.

The movement research will focus on the similarities and differences between folk and techno in terms of footwork, finding ways of blending, transforming and morphing the two realms. To find the folk-vocabulary, I will look into online accessible folk-dances. This virtual presence decontextualizes the dances and makes them available to every- body. I do not want to focus on 1 type of folkdance. I don’t want to express any “nation”, “region” or “blood” –like connection, but my intention is to create a borderless idea of folk (like an idealist techno) that is only about a temporary agreement of being together as a group. I would like to call this a dirty-folk, a folk that is not one, but multiple. (Note: in music we speak of antifolk when referring to lo-fi folkmusic that leans towards punk).

My aim is to create this performance as 1 continuous repetitive transformational dance. Trough the repetition of simple forms and sounds, I want to focus on how they can become transformational.

The sound will consist of silence and hard beats that will pass trough different processes of transformation (namely amplification and modulation). The ‘feeling’ should be hard, industrial techno, but I want to work on the sensual transformation of the beats throughout the performance. I also want to ‘amplify’ the body. In folkdance percussion is something that belongs to live instruments and body (trough stomping, clapping, but also accessories of the clothing like bells). In techno percussion has left the body and moved to electronic sound; I wonder how I can shift these relationships around.

Two things that are important, but still to be developed: costuming (connection to carnival) and the circle (the performance is circular both in the choreography of the movement and the sound, the speakers should turn during the piece)

THE TEAM
cast: auditions in Mai 2022
concept & choreography: Lisa Vereertbrugghen sound: Michael Langeder and Lisa Vereertbrugghen lights: Vera Martins
dramaturgy: Charlotte De Somviele

THE PARTNERS:
Dans in Brugge (collaboration of Concertgebouw, Cultuurcentrum en Kaap), Campo, Kunstenwerkplaats KWP, STUK Arts Centre, ICI — CCN Montpellier, Kunstencentrum BUDA

THE TIMELINE
April-June 2022: collecting partners, team and cast
September – December 2022: research sound/dance (residencies in Concertgebouw and ICI—CCN Montpellier) Januari – June 2023: research with cast - tryouts in june 2023
September – November 2023: composing - tryouts in november 2023
Première: December Dance 2023, Brugge

Residency at Workshop Foundation in Budapest

During the residency in Budapest, Lisa Vereertbrugghen was working on her production "DISQUIET".

"Disquiet":
As in her previous works Softcore, a hardcore encounter and Camouflaging Kelly, Lisa Vereertbrugghen once again explores the possibilities of hardcore dance styles. In DISQUIET her focus is on disruption and dystopia as inherent elements of hardcore subgenres. All these genres are marked by an intensified bass and drum, a minimum speed of 160 BPM and a tendency for disruption of the flow. Focussing on these sonic ruptures, pauses and bursts, DISQUIET explores how they can inform and stimulate the body. Dancing hardcore is presented as a break from structure, looking for a disquieted elsewhere.

Credits

Concept/Choreography/Performance
Lisa Vereertbrugghen
Sound
Michael Langeder
Lights
Vera Martins
Artistic Advice
Madison Bycroft
Construction of Scenography
Ian Gyselinck and Simon van Parys
Photo
Maud Samaha

"DISQUIET is a continuation of my research on hardcoretechno bodypolitics. By looking closely at and experiencing hardcore techno dances, I investigate what it means to be hardcore and what its political potential is. Politics refers to bodypolitics: how an embodied experience is marked by power relations. After gabber in the pieces Softcore and Camouflaging Kelly, my vocabulary is extended with jungle, drum-'n'-bass and other techno variants that call themselves hardcore. One of the elements shared by all these subgenres (apart from their speed) is the rupture of flow, the disturbance of regularity with breakbeats, pauses and complex rhythms. I see it as an opportunity to embrace my own incoherence. With the months of isolation in my body, I want to focus more on the interaction between all those actors: sound, my body, bodies of fellow players (aka the audience) and the space in between."

View her experience report in the upper right column.

Lisa Vereertbrugghen is a choreographer, performer, teacher, dramaturg and researcher based in Brussels (BE). Since 2014 she has been researching hardcore techno dance styles trough various formats: performances, lecture-performances, performance-installations and publications. As a teacher she works with amateurs and professionals on empowerment, physical awareness, sonic release techniques.

“ I look at sound as an abstract material that can activate human bodies and remind people they actually have a body and that they share a space together.
Since 2014 I have been researching hardcore techno trough music theory, choreography and
theorists like Jack Halberstam, Fred Moten, Kodwo Eshun and Donna Haraway, but also through the tracks themselves and my love for them.”

Following the pieces ‘Camouflaging Kelly (2014)’ and ‘SOFTCORE - a hardcore encounter’ (2018), Lisa Vereertbrugghen will continue her physical and theoretical research on hardcore techno dances. While her first pieces zoomed in on the Dutch subgenre of gabber, she now includes other hardcore dance styles - such as UK jungle, drum-‘n-bass and other contemporary hardcore varieties - in an attempt to find and activate their common ground.
One element that connects these underground substyles is the disruption of the flow with pauses, breakbeats and complex intermittent rhythms. In her upcoming creation ‘DISQUIET - sensational aesthetics of a technokin’ (première December 2020), dancing hardcore is considered a continuous breaking down of rules and regularity. Hardcore is approached as a kind of physical anarchy that wildly embraces noise and irregularity.