Claire Croizé focuses with loving attention on the body of her dancers and the beauty of their movements. EVOL wants to share that love with the audience.
The work was inspired by Rainer Maria Rilke’s Duino Elegies. Without words, the dancers evoke the poetry in its purest form, combining highly technical forms with free-flowing movements in order to tell a story of despair, life and joy. EVOL shows us what it means to embody a text, to live and tell it through the body.
Songs from David Bowie’s early works provide a vibrant, poppy soundtrack with a lyrical undercurrent. The mysticism and romance of Rilke’s angels and beasts is mirrored by Bowie’s surrealism. But the element of recognition also plays an important role here: known and loved by everyone, Bowie’s music connects the personal memories of those who hear it with the stories told by the dancers on stage. Without ever illustrating, EVOL brings together these different influences in a powerful dance performance.
Concept and choregraphy
Claire Croizé
Created with and danced by
Claire Godsmark, Youness Khoukhou, Emmi Väisänen, Jason Respilieux
Light designer
Jan Maertens
Costume design
Anne-Catherine Kunz
Dramaturgy
Etienne Guilloteau
Production
Action Scénique
Co-production
Kunstencentrum BUDA
Supported by
WP Zimmer, STUK and Kaaitheater
With the support of the Flemish Authorities of Belgium and the VGC of Brussels.
"Contemporary dance seldomly rhymes with romance and big feelings. Except with Claire Croizé. Her new piece EVOL transports you to a fantasy world built on poems of Rainer Maria Rilke and the equally romantic songs of David Bowie..." (Translated from Dutch)
Pieter T'Jonck, De Morgen, 24 Oct 2016
"Claire Croizé developed her eponymous [to the Sonic Youth album EVOL] dance performance based on the Duino Elegies by German romantic poet Rainer Maria Rilke and adds four dancers in intriguing costumes ánd quite a few David Bowie Songs. 'Five Years', 'Quicksand', 'Space Oddity', 'The Drowned Girl', 'Rock 'n Roll' suïcide, 'Heroes', 'Live on Mars'. Can't be bad." (Translated from Dutch)
Michaël Bellon, BRUZZ, 24 Oct 2016
"Sometimes you wish you had more eyes to look at dance. In Claire Croizé's EVOL, four dancers take on David Bowie. There are barely any unisonos, each dancer is telling their own story in a highly personal movement language. You just don't know where to look first." (Translated from Dutch)
Charlotte De Somviele, De Standaard, 28 Oct 2016
