wE/kataRakt pages

Welcome to the blog of wE(Wauters Erwin)/kataRakt, the project based company under the artistic direction of the Flemish choreographer / composer Erwin Wauters. On these pages you can find out more about the works, the choreographer and events of wE/kataRakt.

New production: INgeniOUS

Finding its premiere the end of March 2012, Erwin Wauters' new production INgeniOUS is launched. 

Ingenious is an imaginary dance work with live electronic music played by the performers focussing on the exceptional behavior of 3 geniuses in order to keep touch with daily life; in order to function as a human being.

3 geniuses, each on their own with great trivia and anecdotes to be told; to become staged: 

• Pierre Alain Volondat: piano master extraordinaire, winner of the 1983 Concours Reine Elizabeth, Belgium (one of world's largest contests for piano, violin or voice). Frustrated and obsessed to keep his spectacles clean and his page the right way up, you wonder?

• Stanley Kubrick: does this great master of cinematography still need to be presented? Hermit to the bone. Opposite to his work, his face was hardly known to the mass, working with a medium that has an exposure to many millions of people?

• Immanuel Kant: German philosopher, personally taking care of a corner stone in our western way of reasoning. Greatly supported by his aid Lampe in what can be seen as one of worlds most peculiar obsessive routine kept lives seen in history?

Ingenious is wE/kataRakt's way to stage and portrait the thin red line through, what can be seen as "strikingly outrageous" behavior. A link, separated from their professional geniality, could be drawn in the behavior of these 3 people and from an outsiders point of view seen as utterly frustrated, routined, sometimes depressed yet overly persistence driven hermits catalogued as geniuses. 

Concept and scenography : Erwin WautersChoreography : Erwin  Wauters in collaboration with the performers

Music composition : Erwin WautersDirecting assistant : Philine Janssens

Interpretation and live music performance : Benoit Armange, Rudi Cole, Erwin Wauters

Dramaturg : Olivier HespelMusical coach : Stéphane DunkelmanTechnical advisor : Ronald de Clopper

INgeniOUS is a wE/kataRakt production in co-production with Charleroi/Danses, Théatre L'Ancre, Dommelhof and DWH vzw.

PROFESSIONAL? Press?

Please mail info@wekatarakt.com for a full dossier.

INgeniOUS TRAILER (3min):

( if not viewable in a standard player is embedded, please click here )

Premiere: March 28th, Théatre Ancre Charleroi 19.00hrs

Short version on Festival International 'Les Réperages': March 24th, Théatre Ancre, Charleroi

Other full shows: March 29th and 30th: Théatre Ancre Charleroi 20.30hrs

In co-creation with Barbara Mavro Thalassitis for her Roberta Dance Company: PAVANE / OBJEKT II

"...Between dance and visual installation, Barbara Mavro Thalassitis and Erwin Wauters create a universe where the bodies seem animated objects. Besides an incredible physical performance, “Pavane” is an unclassable creation, exploring the man-woman ratios in a mixture of humour, violence (sometimes going as far as sadomasochistic), diffused tenderness and constant strangeness. A great success to be absolutely discovered..." Jean-Marie Wynants, Le Soir

"...On a perfectly suitable music, Erwin Wauters and Barbara Mavro Thalassitis interpret a choreography graduated, demanding, eloquent and funny, which progresses in a suspended slowness, swarming with reflexions and of plastic references..." Eric Demey, Impressions d'Avignon

" ….A wickedly cruel fairytale about a 'falsely' tuned piano player, a rather amorphous female character and a pink teddy bear, who has quite peculiar estheticalprinciples… The atmosphere is plastic and brutal. Blind violence, lashes of sensuality and comical perfume are the ingredients of this singular score with the early composition of Maurice Ravel’s 'Pavane pour une infante défunte', as starting point…” Olivier Hespel

In Pavane, ‘the other’ is taken for and treated like an object while the dancers body is rendered to its objective, material state. The piece will be introduced by Ravel’s 'Pavane pour une infante défunte', interpreted live by Stephan Ginsburg.

This prelude will introduce the subject of this piece: the loss of innocence and the relationship between a man (disguised as a pink teddy bear) and the lifeless body of a woman who’s being manipulated like an object. Alternately an object of desire or scrap, she gradually gains life until she, on her turn, transforms the bear.

In this 'play of hybridation' both of them identify with the object of his/her desire and by borrowing the others' attributes, the woman becomes a phallic bear and the teddy bear becomes feminine.

It is definitely about the loss, fall and quest of an object forever lost or missing. And it’s about the confusion and the impossible demand that ties us together and yet separates us forever.

This choreographic, but also plastic object uses a tremendously physical language to develop the objective relation to the other. The metaphor for the relationship between men and women becomes a tale of cruelty.

Barbara Mavro Thalassitis designed and made the scenery and costumes. This part of her work does not simply create the props and setting but are the very elements used to build the choreography. It’s through the interaction of animated and inanimated objects that the status of body and object are constantly questioned.

Erwin Wauters composed 40% of the music for Pavane (all the electronica, plus repatches of existing songs) which supports the basement feeling this work breathes from the startingpoint. It combines atmospheric soundscapes with deep and heavy bases travelling (ochtaphonic) through the theatre.

This piece is inspired by the fundamental principles of psychoanalysis and by what Jacques Lacan developed in his writings about the concept of object - notably where he enumerates their different types: the oral, the anal, the view, the vocal and finally the nothing. These objects (cause of desire) are the evident truth of how one looks for what one is missing in the other or in oneself since they cannot be designated to real objects.

interpretation and creation Barbara Mavro Thalassitis and Erwin Wauters choreography, objects, costumes and set design Barbara Mavro Thalassitis composition of the electronic music Erwin Wauters light design Laurence Halloy 'pavane pour une infante défunte' from Maurice Ravel, played life by Stephan Ginsburg


Playlist:

• 15th of February 2011 (20.00hrs): Theatre d'Arras, France (link)
• 29th and 31st of August 2010: Festival International des Brigitinnes, Brussels (link)
• 2nd and 3rd of July 2010: Oostende, beach for the DANSAND! festival (link) ! Picnic only (10 min)!
• 9th and 10th of June 2010: Espace Senghor, Brussels for the Balsa Marni festival (link)
• 18th and 19th of March 2010: Braçonne (Charentes, Angoulême - France): Mars en Braçonne
• 10th and 11th of February 2010: Centre Wallonie Bruxelles (Paris, France) program of the festival-link Festival 'On y danse'
• 25th and 27th of November 2009: La Biennale de Charleroi/Danses (link)
• 8th till 28th of July 2009: 19 performances in Avignon (festival OFF Avignon), La Manufacture: 2 rue des écoles, 84000 Avignon, France. Daily performance (except July 20th) at 17.15hrs (reservations: +33 (0)4 90 85 12 71) - info@lamanufacture.org
  
  
  

  
  
  
• 4th,5th, 6th of March 2009: premiering in theatre de l'Ancre, Charleroi, for the 2008/2009 season of Charleroi/Danses

More performances are possible to follow, please check this site regularly

Diffusion contact: Fabienne Aucant (CHARLEROI/DANSES)

We will keep you up to date of the upcoming shows, if you simply by send us a mail to wekatarakt@scarlet.be or add yourself as a friend on Facebook with Erwin Wauters

Videoreport and interview appearing on Together Magazine:

Infraspectre

Infraspectre, meaning ‘beneath the exterior’ is a contemporary dance work dealing with a recurring human problem. It highlights our tendency to overlook things that go wrong in life by focusing on the exterior and the linked banalities that go with it: Hair that stays in the airbrush, the tube of toothpaste squeezed in the middle, the toilet seat being left up yet another time, …

A recognizable reason for this behaviour is rooted deeply and

solving it would require a profound search into the inner

self.

Infraspectre, on the other hand, focuses on those futile, excessively far-fetched banalities that hamper one's life. It is behind these that one finds place to hide and ignore the real problem.

A physical translation of this underlying suppression revealed an overall stress in the body, uncontrolable twitches whilst energetic dance phrases were going on, causing a dual alienation. The result is brought to an abstract staging by the performers, which guarantees a bizarre yet recognisable eccentricity.

The sound engineering, by Xavier Van Wersch, was specifically composed for this work and is brought to life by machines (retro electronics such as Atari, Commodore, Amstrad and a manual oscillator). Handmade gizmos also add to the rich texture of Infraspectre: minimalistic solos develop into seriously rhythmical ‘Cuts and Clicks’ and create a mystical and electrical radiation of sound.

The set is a thought provoking sand timer piling up thin white sand, while three painted dancers make their way through numerous outings of frustration that translate in both verbal and physical forms.

From the overall tranquillity of the uniform costumes and make-up, the piece evolves into a Butoh inspired atmosphere, combining minimalist movements with maximalist dance theatre: a path filled with aggression and incomprehension.

concept & choreography: Erwin Wauters, performed by Lies Mahy, Sofie Tack, Erwin Wauters sound engineering Xavier Van Wersch costumes Annemie Buys setting and light design: Erwin Wauters coaching Marc Vanrunxt, Kees Meerman

Video excerpts from Infraspectre (3 in this playlist):

Sex Sells (dutch title: Vlees verkoopt)

Sex Sells is a dance comedy that highlights the thin line between creativity and commercialism in a satirical manner. It puts 4 performers and 2 manipulators into an unusual scenographic concept. Sex Sells is not a stab at commercialism, nor is it a tirade about the hardships of artistic life. Instead, it shows that each element can usually not exist without the other; that the paths we choose artistically in life can be suddenly interrupted by commercial concepts.

The other inspirations for Sex Sells are P.T. Barnum (a 19^th century quack who managed to literally sell ‘pure’ air in a box, which paved the way for herds of sales folk selling longer life potions, etc), a profound amount of Business Marketing literature (advertisers using the more sensuous body parts to sell their product), the money draining sms culture and silly tv ‘call in gameshows’.

For obvious reasons, the scene in Sex Sells is split into 2 parts. Two manipulators are sitting directly in front of each part and can be considered to be responsible for the crossovers that happen throughout the piece. These 2 parts, of course, represent creativity on the one side and commercialism on the other.

Two life-size projection screens spit out an assortment of images (mainly created in association with Istvan Leel-Össy – Kunstlab Avelinks), which strongly support all of the above. The texts, used in Sex Sells, are written by the author / theatre maker Wim Geysen (www.wimgeysen.be), who was an integral part of the creative team during the research period of Sex Sells.

concept and choreography Erwin Wauters perfomance Benny Desmedt, Lies Mahy, Sofie Tack, Min Hee Bervoets, Annelies Van Roie (understudy) extra videoperformers Jenny Nieuweland, Kim Arts, Gwen Hamerlinck video and sound Istvan Leel-Össy text Wim Geysen light and setting Erwin Wauters coproducer KunstlabAvelinks

Video excerpts from Vlees Verkoopt (Sex Sells) (3 in this playlist):

Sessions of Awkwardness

2004 brought about the creation of Sessions of Awarkwardness, a travelling production inside a large white cube. The space allows audience, artists and crew to experience the true meaning of the piece in an intimate environment.

Sessions of Awkwardness deals with familiar everyday situations that evoke a definite feeling of unease and inevitable awkwardness; moments where one comes into contact with another person, yet are unable to communicate and relate.

The concept of Sessions of Awkwardness is based on Hippocrates' philosophy relating to the formation of one's personality through the inner balance of the "four humours," namely Blood, Black Bile, Yellow Bile and Phlegm (Sanguine, Choleric, Melanchos and Phlegma). Hippocrates believed that the combination of these "life juices" within each of us makes us unique.

Imagine the fireworks that arise when four artists, each representing just one of these "life juices," are placed in a small confined space; no choice but to interact, forcing each juice of life to its limit...

concept and choreography Erwin Wauters performance Ali Wauters, Annelien Goetschalckx, Lies Mahy, Sophie Tack soundengineering Cortechxvalley setting design Manus imaging Jan Nauwelaerts co-producer Icaros

Excerpts of Sessions of Awkwardness (4 in a playlist)

Works from 1996 - 2004

From an early age Erwin was drawn more to the creation of dance art than to physically dancing himself, eventhough he danced in loads of productions, because that experience was both inevitable as a good learning process.

"It is something I cannot control, this desire to see something evolve in front of me, to create something from nothing. It is not always easy and it often keeps you up at night, but it excites me and drives me forward. It is like living on the edge of a roller-coaster, sometimes tremendous and sometimes stress inducing, but the end result is always incredibly satisfying and I would not change the process for the world." 

To list up the works that were created

1. 2004: ‘Sangre Hirviendo’
2. 2003: ‘One Track Mind’
3. 1999: 'Trigger Hippie'
4. 1998: '@-.' (at - dot) eerste avondvullende creatie
5. 1997: 'Vivaldi's Adagio' and '6.4.U.2.?'
   
6. 1996: 'People'