As a child, I hated it when the weekend movie on the Flemish TV ended with the message: based on a true story. It was always a disappointment and a form of deceit. I preferred made-up stories at that time.
Many years later I wanted to reverse this feeling by using the ‘title’ (based on a true story) for a new format and presentation model for short dance creations.
I imagined brief working sessions in which encounter and exchange are central. The duration, context and form will vary greatly and depend on the encounter & exchange in question. I pictured a series of meetings with dancers with whom I wanted to collaborate to present, after a week of studio time, the result on location, outside the black box.
With Igor Shyshko, Bahar Temiz and Jan Martens I worked on a short fragment from a performance I had made with them separately, to then bring those fragments together in a new performance, stretched in time.
With Jaime Llopis, Kinga Jaczewska, Kevin Fay, Samantha Van Wissen and Robson Ledesma I entered into a new relationship, a first contact, an artistic acquaintance. The title (based on a true story) refers to the true, authentic encounters with these dancers.
For the festival The Image Generator 2022 that takes place in Sofia in Bulgaria, I will collaborate with Peter Savel, one of the Kunst/Werk satellites. As a culmination of years of collaboration with Peter, always in a group setting, I now want to develop a solo dance together with him. Peter will continue to work on the output of this collaboration with a Bulgarian dancer (m,v,x), so that during the festival two versions will be presented of (based on a true story) #7 and #8.
(based on a true story) # 2020-2022
- (based on a true story) #0 (prototype) with Igor Shyshko, Jan Martens, Bahar Temiz, Paul Verrept, Els Mondelaers, Katleen Vinck – The Image Generator 2020, September 2020
- (based on a true story) #1 – MORE OR LESS – with Jaime Llopis – Superstudio #1, May 2021
- (based on a true story) #2 – Position – with Igor Shyshko – Hof ter Saksen, June 2021
- (based on a true story) #3 – UNSELF – with Kinga Jaczewska – The Image Generator, September 2021
- (based on a true story) #4 – ECLIPSE – with Kevin Fay – The Image Generator, September 2021
- (based on a true story) #5 – Cérémonie – with Samantha Van Wissen & Stanislav Dobak – short film, November 2021
- (based on a true story) #6 – It’s a temporary Thing – with Robson Ledesma, Daniel Vanverre, Katleen Vinck – Superstudio #2, May 2022
- (based on a true story) #7 – Presence – with Peter Savel – The Image Generator, October 2022
- (based on a true story) #8 – Absence – with Sacha Krastarska – The Image Generator, October 2022