Mercedes Dassy
‘B4 summer’ is a scream. A scream of engagement to face global social struggles. How can we face the complexity of today's world and how to engage into it fully without being overwhelmed by chaos? How to negotiate honestly with the vulnerability and the sense of powerlessness into which these questions can plunge? How to assess the legitimacy of one's engagement?
Based on this cry, Mercedes Dassy uses her body as a weapon, as a tool, as an obstacle, as a space for exploration to try to articulate a reaction. Influenced by very diverse aesthetic and artistic sources (pop culture, music, post-internet art, etc.), Brussels choreographer and dancer Mercedes Dassy presents ‘B4 summer’ as the second part of a performance cycle. In ‘i-clit’, her previous work, she explored a new wave of ultra-connected and ultra-sexed feminism in order to question its ambivalent power of emancipation and oppression. The dancer inscribes her new creation in the continuity of her quest, taking inspiration from real, symbolic or fictional representatives to probe our (in)capacity to act and engage.
"Changing the world. An idea, a project, organizations, for a moment it was even a question of victory. The story seemed pregnant with truth. We came afterwards, children of disillusionment and bad dreams. The overthrow of capitalism was aborted, its very desire entered a phase of symbolic disintegration. Words were too worn out when they were not too wise. So they taught us to scream.” - ‘Printemps précaires des peuples’ - Maria Kakkogianni
CREDITS
choreography & direction Mercedes Dassy - dramaturgy Sabine Cmelniski, Jill De Muelenaere - sound Clément Braive - scenography & lighting Caroline Mathieu - costumes & scenography Justine Denos - distribution France Morin, Jill De Muelenaere | Arts Management Agency (AMA) - production Théâtre la Balsamine / Arts Management Agency - coproduction Théâtre de Liège, Théâtre la Balsamine, Arts Centre Vooruit, Charleroi danse, Centre chorégraphique de Wallonie-Bruxelles, Mars-Mons arts de la scène, La Coop asbl - with the support of the French Community, Service de la danse, [e]utopia, Bamp, Shelterprod, ING, the Tax Shelter of the Belgian Federal government - image © Mercedes Dassy - in collaboration with LOD muziektheater
