Elisabeth gets her way
2022 - Director : Plasson, Fabien
Choreographer(s) : Martens, Jan (Belgium)
Present in collection(s): Maison de la danse , Saisons 2020 > 2024
Video producer : Maison de la Danse de Lyon
Integral video available at Maison de la danse de Lyon
Elisabeth gets her way
2022 - Director : Plasson, Fabien
Choreographer(s) : Martens, Jan (Belgium)
Present in collection(s): Maison de la danse , Saisons 2020 > 2024
Video producer : Maison de la Danse de Lyon
Integral video available at Maison de la danse de Lyon
Elisabeth gets her way
The new solo created and performed by Jan Martens will be a danced portrait of the Polish-born Elisabeth Chojnacka (1939–2017), an exceptionally talented and passionate musician who contributed to the revival of harpsichord music in the middle of the twentieth century.
While in 1968 the Paris student revolt challenged old ideals, Chojnacka discovered avant-garde composers such as François-Bernard Mâche and began to play more regularly the few contemporary works for harpsichord, in addition to the classical pieces that were always part of her repertoire. In part thanks to her talent and perseverance, a number of composers (Ligeti, Xenakis, Ferrari, Berio, Halffter, etc.) wrote new work for the harpsichord in the 1970s and 1980s. These were often dedicated to Chojnacka.
ELISABETH GETS HER WAY wants to pay tribute to this exceptional woman. The solo will be a danced portrait with a wide-ranging soundtrack, consisting of a selection of the music she recorded in her fifty-year career: from Nyman to Montague via Ligeti, all performed by Chojnacka. The objective is to keep the dance close to the sometimes complex scores. Martens ‘plays’ his body like Chojnacka played the harpsichord. Different styles of movement are brought together, just as she effortlessly wound her way between registers and genres with a few centuries of musical history in her fingers. The dance pieces in the solo will be complemented by a documentary layer in which Chojnacka’s work and life are discussed narratively, among others through interviews with people who were close to her.
Martens set to work earlier with a performance by Chojnacka in any attempt will end in crushed bodies and shattered bones (premiere on February 4, 2021), a work for 17 dancers. The concerto for harpsichord and strings by Polish composer Henryk Gorecki, which she performed with the London Sinfonietta, plays an important role in that production. In 2021 it will be fifty years exactly since Chojnacka released her first album: Clavecin 2000. An ideal moment to pay homage to this remarkable woman with a solo in which she is given the time and space she deserves.
Source: Grip
More information: www.grip.house
Martens, Jan
Jan Martens (° 1984, Belgium) studied at the Fontys Dance Academy in Tilburg and graduated in 2006 from the dance department of the Artesis Royal Conservatoire of Antwerp. Since 2010 he has been making his own choreographic work which, over the years, has been performed with increasing regularity before a national and international audience.
The work of Martens is nurtured by the belief that each body can communicate, that each body has something to say. That direct communication expresses itself in transparent forms. His work is a sanctuary in which the notion of time becomes tangible again and in which there is room for observation and emotion as well as reflection. To achieve this result he creates not so much a movement language of his own, but shapes and reuses existing idioms in a different context so that new ideas emerge. In each new work he tries to redraw the relation between public and performer.
Martens’ first production I CAN RIDE A HORSE WHILST JUGGLING SO MARRY ME (2010) was a portrait of a generation of young women in a society dominated by social networks. It was followed by two love duets that he made at Frascati Amsterdam. A SMALL GUIDE ON HOW TO TREAT YOUR LIFETIME COMPANION (2011) was selected for Aerowaves 2011 and SWEAT BABY SWEAT (2011) for the Dutch Dance Festival 2012 and Circuit X 2013. He then created three shows about unconventional beauty, with performers whose bodies you do not expect in the context of contemporary dance: BIS (2012) for the then 62-year-old Truus Bronkhorst, LA BETE (2013) for the young actress Joke Emmers, and VICTOR (2013), a duet for a boy and a grown man that Martens created with director Peter Seynaeve.
In 2014 Martens focused attention on the jump as movement in the group performance THE DOG DAYS ARE OVER (2014). The production was selected for the Flanders Theatre Festival and is still touring, just like Martens’ solo ODE TO THE ATTEMPT (2014) and the project THE COMMON PEOPLE (2016), a performance, social experiment and workshop in one, created in collaboration with film director Lukas Dhont. Martens’ show RULE OF THREE (2017) was a collaboration with the American sound artist NAH, and had its premiere at deSingel in Antwerp where Martens started his trajectory as creative associate in 2017. The performance got nominated for a Zwaan (Swan) in the category ‘most impressive dance production 2018.’ De Zwanen are seen as the most prestigious dance prize within the Dutch performing arts field.
In the 18/19 season, Martens engaged in three collaborations. Together with 13 youths and fABULEUS, he created PASSING THE BECHDEL TEST, a theatrical production in which the voices of the youths are interwoven with the voices of famous and less famous women from the present and the past. He also revised the successful 2011 production A SMALL GUIDE ON HOW TO TREAT YOUR LIFETIME COMPANION with two new dancers under the title PAULINE THOMAS as commissioned by CDCN Le Gymnase in Roubaix. In January 2019, Martens himself took the stage again in the solo lostmovements, in which he plunges into the universe of choreographer and friend Marc Vanrunxt (Kunst/Werk). In 19/20 Martens’ focus is on the premiere of any attempt will end in crushed bodies and shattered bones. A work for seventeen dancers between the ages of 15 and 68. The premiere – scheduled for April 24, 2020 at DE SINGEL (Antwerp, BE) was postponed due to the corona crisis and took in the end place on July 18 at Festival d’Avignon. On July 12, 2021 ELISABETH GETS HER WAY premiered at Julidans (Amsterdam, NL). This solo created and performed by Jan Martens is a danced portrait of the Polish-born Elisabeth Chojnacka (1939–2017), an exceptionally talented and passionate musician who contributed to the revival of harpsichord music in the middle of the twentieth century.
In 2014 Jan Martens founded, together with business manager Klaartje Oerlemans, the choreographic platform GRIP in Antwerp / Rotterdam, from where they jointly produce and distribute his work as well as support the work of Cherish Menzo and Steven Michel.
Source : https://www.grip.house/
Plasson, Fabien
Born in 1977, Fabien Plasson is a video director specialized in the field of performing arts (dance , music, etc).
During his studies at the Ecole Nationale des Beaux-Arts de Lyon (joined in 1995) Fabien discovered video art. He was trained by various video artists (Joel Bartoloméo Pascal Nottoli , Eric Duyckaerts , etc).
He first experimented with the creation of installations and cinematic objects.
From 2001 to 2011, he was in charge of Ginger & Fred video Bar’s programming at La Maison de la Danse in Lyon. He discovered the choreographic field and the importance of this medium in the dissemination, mediation and pedagogical approach to dance alongside Charles Picq, who was a brilliant video director and the director of the video department at that time.
Today, Fabien Plasson is the video director at La Maison de la Danse and in charge of the video section of Numeridanse.tv, an online international video library, and continues his creative activities, making videos of concerts, performances and also creating video sets for live performances.
Sources: Maison de la Danse ; Fabien Plasson website
More information: fabione.fr
GRIP
GRIP is a choreographic platform under the direction of choreographer and dancer Jan Martens and business manager and coordinator Klaartje Oerlemans.
GRIP produces and supports in the first place the work of choreographer and maker Jan Martens, who quickly made himself a name in the performing arts field by following an intense, international and non-conventional parcours. His performances play in that grey zone between concrete stories and abstract concepts. The focus often lies on people who try to find their way through life, showing both vulnerability and strength.
GRIP furthermore endorses four choreographers in developing their artistic trajectory: Bára Sigfúsdóttir, Steven Michel, Cherish Menzo and Michele Rizzo. The artistic director and business manager decide jointly what artists join GRIP. In doing so they seek to reflect and broaden the diversity and variation in the landscape of contemporary dance and performance.
Besides the dance makers there are five supporters: a business manager and coordinator (Klaartje Oerlemans), a production supervisor and tour manager (Sylvie Svanberg), a production intern (Marie Luyten), a communications manager (Sam Loncke) and an advisor and house dramaturge (Rudi Meulemans) who acts as a sounding board for the makers, independently from the production dramaturges. There are also a number of freelance collaborators, among them a rehearsal director, production dramaturges and indeed the dancers and performers.
GRIP is a nomadic structure. GRIP does not have a studio of its own, but makes use of the existing infrastructure in the performing arts landscape by forging alliances with theatres, co-producers, production companies and residency venues. The creations always emerge in different spaces and in interaction with the different professional contexts.
GRIP is active in several countries. GRIP is a non-profit association based in Antwerp and in Rotterdam. GRIP receives structural subsidies from the Government of Flanders (2017-2021) and has several international co-producers as well as many partners in Europe and North America.
Elisabeth Gets Her Way
Choreography : Jan Martens
Interpretation : Jan Martens
Artistic consultancy / Dramaturgy : Marc Vanrunxt, Anne-Lise Brevers, Rudi Meulemans
Lights : Elke Verachtert
Costumes : Cédric Charlie
Technical direction : Michel Spang, Elke Verachtert
Sound : Yanna Soentjens
Production / Coproduction of the choreographic work : Grip
Production / Coproduction of the video work : Maison de la Danse de Lyon - Fabien Plasson, 2022
Duration : 60'
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