Videos

12-16 November 2019

Stanche Mani

Performance with Lisa Da Boit, 12-16 November 2019

Théâtre de la Vie, Brussels
→  theatredelavie.be

In co-production with Giolisu, Brussels
And support by Théâtre Marni, Grand Studio, La Roseraie, Centre Garcia Lorca, Espace Magh
→ giolisu.com/...

Concept, choregraphy: Lisa Da Boit

Text, voice: Sophie de Beer

Interpretation: Lisa Da Boit, Sophie de Beer

Visual universe: Natalia Blanch

Live music: Sofiane Remadna

Lights: Yoris van den Houte

Direction assistant: Rudi Galindo

Promotion: Frank Barat, Anne Golaz

Stanche Mani, digital video 2'38'', trailer, 2019

In Stanche Mani's work and research process, I specially used rice paper rolls and Indian ink to capture the energy and fluidity of the dance movements in drawings. These rolls of drawn paper were then used to dance, which damaged and tore them apart. I set out to repair the paper by stitching it up and creating an “unlimited” structure. On some of the pieces I embroidered extracts from poems. For example from the poem Separation:

“With mules, on foot
by airliners and lorries
in our hearts
we carry everything,
harvests, coffins, water,
oil, hydrogen, roads,
flowering lilac and
the earth thrown into the mass grave.”

John Berger, Separation
from Pages of Wounds

Stanche Mani reflects the deep tensions that run through us as individuals and as a society, how to reconcile being in action and the need of silence; how to have various experiences of times, of the time that is unfolding and of the instant.

“Which kind of reflection can an artist bring on stage about the current social and political environment? Stanche Mani is a feminist piece about the artistic engagement. Lisa Da Boit dances on the ashes of her last solo Ferocia and finds herself ‘after the battle’, her hands tired from having supported, searched and held so strongly. [...] With Natalia Blanch, witness through her silent presence and her labor, Stanche Mani is intended as a poem that holds together the strident contradictions of reality and which allows us to glimpse the hypothesis of a distant light.” Excerpt from the website of Giolisu.