© Leif Firnhaber

We’re pretty fuckin’ far from okay

Lisbeth Gruwez & Maarten Van Cauwenberghe
2016

We’re pretty fuckin’ far from okay is the third (and last) installment of Voetvolk | Lisbeth Gruwez’ ‘triptych on the ecstatic body’, after It’s going to get worse and worse and worse, my friend (2012) and AH/HA (2014): performances that gained great (international) recognition.

The basic principle of the show is the concrete physiological impact of fear. In We’re pretty fuckin’ far from okay, fear is studied as a biological phenomenon, not as a socio-cultural sensation. Not as acquired behaviour, but as evolutionary developed answer to the question “to fight, flight or freeze?” In We’re pretty fuckin’ far from okay ‘nature’ beats ‘nurture’ – although they are sometimes each other’s nursing enemies.

Performers Lisbeth Gruwez and Wannes Labath zoom in on what fear does to a body: they incorporate the haunted look, the accelerated heart rate, the shallow breathing. According to them, fear is a body in trance, reduced to its instincts.

In his turn, Maarten Van Cauwenberghe uses the unstable breathing patterns as the foundation of his soundscape, creating suspense as well as restfulness – not uncommonly at the very same time.

back

A dance performance with “humming, trembling and rattling bodies in a physically variegated feat of strength about fear and panic. Wonderful how such an intangible excitement is made recognizable.

– Trouw

Peter Verhelst once called Lisbeth Gruwez an ‘A-bomb’, which hits the nail on the head. Her sense of timing and suspense is unsurpassed; her physical control virtuoso.

– De Standaard

The dancers’ physical control is perfect and the respiration-based soundscape of Maarten Van Cauwenberghe transfers the physical experience of uneasiness onto the audience, which very much demonstrates the contagious nature of fear.

– Theaterkrant

Lisbeth Gruwez’ unique gestural language conveys the impression that her body is able to disarticulate while retaining its perfect beauty and fluidity. Each time she draws deep within our emotions.

– La Libre Belgique

all press

CONCEPT & CHOREOGRAPHY
Lisbeth Gruwez

COMPOSITION, SOUND DESIGN & ASSISTANCE
Maarten Van Cauwenberghe

PERFORMANCE
Lisbeth Gruwez & Wannes Labath

ARTISTIC ADVISOR
Bart Van den Eynde

LIGHT DESIGN
Harry Cole & Caroline Mathieu

TECHNICAL DIRECTOR
Thomas Glorieux

SCENOGRAPHY
Lisbeth Gruwez, Maarten Van Cauwenberghe & Marie Szersnovicz

REPETITOR
Lucius Romeo-Fromm

PRODUCTION
Voetvolk vzw

COPRODUCTION
La Bâtie — Festival de Genève, KVS, Le Phare — Centre Chorégraphique National du Havre Normandie, Theater Im Pumpenhaus, Les Brigittines, TANDEM Arras-Douai, Weimar Kunstfest, MA — Scène Nationale de Montbéliard & Festival d’Avignon

RESIDENCIES
Troubleyn | Jan Fabre, Arts Centre BUDA, STUK, Les Brigittines

SUPPORTED BY
NONA, the Flemish Community & the Flemish Community Commission

DISTRIBUTION IN COLLABORATION WITH
Key Performance

media browser

©2024 - VOETVOLK VZW GENTSESTEENWEG 1073 / 1082 SINT-AGATHA-BERCHEM BELGIUM / 0875.584.950 – RPR BRUSSEL – PRIVACY POLICY