A speech can be a mighty weapon. Throughout the centuries it has enthused countless masses and galvanized them into action, for better or for worse. It has unleashed revolutions and fueled wars. Just by the power of words. But a speech does not only enthuse the hearers, often it also transposes the speaker into a state of trance. Then he loses himself in a stream of words, in an obsessive, ecstatic way of speaking. The power of a speech often depends on the trance of the speaker. In It's going to get worse and worse and worse, my friend Lisbeth Gruwez dances the trance of that ecstatic speechifying. In the process, she takes advantage of fragments from a speech by the ultraconservative American televangelist Jimmy Swaggart. Initially the parlance is friendly and pacifying, but from his compulsive desire to persuade transpires growing despair. Eventually it exposes its deepest nature: violence.

Source : Rencontres chorégraphiques internationales de Seine-Saint-Denis

Lisbeth Gruwez (1977) is a Belgian dancer and choreographer, half of Voetvolk's artistic team. She started practising classical ballet at the age of 6 and studied at the 'Stedelijk Instituut voor Ballet' (Antwerp), combining high school with a professional dance education. Once graduated, she joined P.A.R.T.S. (Brussels) to study contemporary dance.

In 1999 she started working with Jan Fabre, being part of his guerriers de la beauté. Having performed in « As long as the world needs a warrior's soul » (2000) and « Je suis sang » (2001), she rose to international fame because of « Quando » l'uomo principale è una donna (2004), the solo Jan Fabre created specifically for (and with) her, well-known for its olive oil-drenched stage.

Apart from working with Fabre, she also collaborated with Ultima Vez (« The Day of Heaven and Hell »), Jan Lauwers|Needcompany (« Images of Affection »), Grace Ellen Barkey (Few Things), Riina Saastamoinen (« Cry Me a River ») and Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui ("Foi").

In 2007 she founded Voetvolk, together with Maarten Van Cauwenberghe. Their work is an ongoing conversation between corporal and auditive movement, in order to achieve a symbiosis between the aural and the visual/physical.

Apart from establishing her own choreographies with Voetvolk, Lisbeth Gruwez has danced in Arco Renz' i!2, together with Melanie Lane, and she also played the leading role in Lost Persons Area, Caroline Strubbe's first feature film.

Gruwez danced in videoclips for A Brand ("Hammerhead"), Juliette and the Licks ("Death of a Whore"), Dirk Braeckman (promoting A.F. Vandevorst's winter collection) and MUGWUMP ("At the Front").

She is also one of the "KVS faces", the open ensemble of artists and thinkers associated with the Royal Flemish Theatre of Brussels.

Right now she is touring with Voetvolk creations We're pretty fuckin' far from okay and Lisbeth Gruwez dances Bob Dylan, and with KVS creation Odysseus. She is also preparing « Thoughts for Meditation », Voetvolk's first large-scale production, to premiere in 2018, for which she will stay offstage to coordinate the bigger picture.

Source : The company Voetvolk 's website

More information

voetvolk.be