Alain Platel and Elsie de Brauw

Our guests in HALf6 on the 4th of February were Belgian choreographer/theatre maker ALAIN PLATEL and Dutch actress ELSIE DE BRAUW.
The moderators of this session were ROSA ASBREUK and ZEYNEP GÜNDÜZ.
The musical intermezzi were performed by the band: VONDELING.

'How to live or even survive with dignity under nearly impossible circumstances' is the general theme throughout Platel’s theatre performance tauberbach, shown on 5, 6 and 7 February 2014 in Stadsschouwburg Amsterdam. The work is created in collaboration with Münchner Kammerspiele, les ballets C de la B, NTGent, and featuring award-winning Dutch actress Elsie de Brauw.
Platel and de Brauw’s desire to make a performance together has been an important motivation to create this work. Sources of inspiration are Estamira, a Brazilian documentary featuring a schizophrenic woman and her way of communicating and Tauber Bach by Artur Zmijewski, a chorus of deaf people singing Bach’s music.

HALf6 took tauberbach as a starting point to pose questions as: What does collaboration between different disciplines require from performers? Or from creators? What is meant by ‘bastard dance’? Can this expression provide a framework for dance/performance education? Where do we go from here?

Alain Platel is trained as remedial educationalist and is an autodidact director. In 1984 he founded the critically acclaimed company les ballets C de la B, located in Gent. His works are significant marks in the field of dance and performance ranging from earlier works such as Bonjour Madame (1993), pitie! (2008) and Gardenia (2012).

Elsie de Brauw has studied theatre at Toneelacademie Maastricht. She is currently leading actress at the Münchner Kammerspiele. Elsie has played in many art works such as Opening Night (dir. Ivo van Hove) and Oresteia (dir. Johan Simons). She has twice won the Theo d'Or award.

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