SOMMERAKADEMIE: Cherish Menzo (NL) - DARKMATTER

In the organizer's words:

Want to delve deeper into the subject? Cherish Menzo and Camilo Mejía Cortés are giving a workshop on DISTORTION - DISSONANCE - DECAY from July 8-10.

Can a body become hypothetical, a galaxy in full acceleration, a liquid star monster that doesn't want to die?

In their new creation, Cherish Menzo and her stage partner Camilo Mejía Cortés search for ways to detach their bodies from the way they are perceived and the daily reality in which they move. They look to the sky, dark matter and black holes, among other things, which meet and collide to give birth to a new, (afro)futuristic and enigmatic body. DARKMATTER wants to get rid of the one-sided view of our own bodies, of those of others and of the stories we ascribe to them. Together, they throw their bodies into a complex conversation that they simultaneously enter into and want to transcend - a duality that feeds the performance.

As in her previous project JEZEBEL, Menzo expands her movement language further by applying the chopped and screwed method to her movement language. A remix technique from hip-hop music in which the tempo is greatly reduced. By stretching the notion of time, the pitch changes and the performing body manages to create new readings.

DARKMATTER aims to bring about a profound restructuring of our atoms and searches for a new form for our body and the complex outside world to which it relates, as well as for a new perspective.

CHOREOGRAPHIN

Cherish Menzo (°1988, Netherlands) is a performing artist and choreographer based in Amsterdam and Brussels. In her artistic work she is interested in the transformation of the body on stage and in the "embodiment" of different physical images. Images seem recognizable at first glance, but by highlighting their complexity and contradictions, Cherish challenges the apparent norm and creates universes in which the black body takes center stage. She moves between the nostalgia of 90s and 00s hip-hop, industrial hip-hop, rap lyrics, sci-fi, manga and speculative visions of the future. She uses these elements as tools to give shape to uncanny, enigmatic forms and realities - and to materialize them.

PREMIERE 12-15 May 2022, Beursschouwburg/Kunstenfestivaldesarts Brussels

CONCEPT AND CHOREOGRAPHY: Cherish Menzo

CREATION AND PERFORMANCE : Camilo Mejía Cortés, Cherish Menzo

LIGHTING DESIGN: Niels Runderkamp

MUSICAL COMPOSITION : Gagi Petrovic, Michael Nunes

MASTERING: Gagi Petrovic

MUSIC LIST: via www.grip.house or www.frascatitheater.nl

SCENOGRAPHY: Morgana Machado Marques

COSTUME DESIGN: JustTatty.com

DRAMATURGY : Renée Copraij, Benjamin Kahn

TEXT: Cherish Menzo, Camilo Mejía Cortés, BOИSU, Shari Kok-Sey-Tjong

VOCAL AND DELIVERY COACHING: BOИSU, Shari Kok-Sey-Tjong

ARTISTIC ADVICE: Christian Yav, Nicole Geertruida

VOICES DISTORTED RAP CHOIR: via www.distortedrapchoir.com

WITH REFERENCES TO AND INSPIRED BY:

- Act I of the American Opera 'Troubled Island' by William Grant Still (1949)

- 'BLACKSPACE: ON THE POETICS OF AN AFROFUTURE' by Anaïs Duplan

- 'The Mask' by Paul Laurens Dunbar

- Video clip 'Throw it back' (2019) by Missy Elliot.

- The Mythology of the American electronic music duo Drexciya

TECHNICIANS: Niels Runderkamp, Amber Stallenberg/ Sander Cools

PRODUCTION: GRIP, Frascati Producties

INTERNATIONAL DISTRIBUTION : A Propic - Line Rousseau, Marion Gauvent, Lara van Lookeren

COPRODUCTION: Kunstenfestivaldesarts (Brussels, BE), CCN-Ballet national de Marseille dans le cadre de l'accueil studio / Ministère de la Culture (FR), actoral festival (Marseille, FR), STUK (Leuven, BE), La Villette (Paris, FR), Festival d'Automne à Paris (FR), Beursschouwburg (Brussels, BE), De Coproducers (NL), Perpodium (BE)

RESIDENCIERS: STUK (Leuven, BE), La Villette (Paris, FR), Frascati (Amsterdam, NL), Beursschouwburg (Brussels, BE), CCN-Ballet national de Marseille dans le cadre de l'accueil studio / Ministère de la Culture (FR), Productiehuis Theater Rotterdam (NL)

IN COLLABORATION WITH: Trill (Leuven, BE), WijzijnDOX (Utrecht, NL)

WITH THE FINANCIAL SUPPORT OF: the Flemish Government, The Performing Arts Fund NL, Ammodo, Tax Shelter of the Belgian Federal Government, Cronos Invest

THANKS TO: Eric Cyuzuzo, Jan Fedinger, Dries Douibi, Khadija El Kharraz Alami