Festival a/d Werf will premier Alexandra Bachzetsis Musical as part of If I Can’t Dance’s Edition II – Feminist Legacies and Potentials in Contemporary Art Practice. The artist has created a performance piece based on dance, a series of classic musicals and elaborated karaoke style-video works. The work mimics and refers to particular scenes or moods from the genre of the 20th century musical stretching from the ’20s to the ’90s.

The characteristic of these musicals is their structuring along ‘clear cut’ male and female roles and their stories are constantly played though the language of love. What quickly becomes clear is how rigidly stylized the characters are in terms of their sexuality – the women are both dressed and produced as highly sexualized bodies which fluctuate between different characteristics at times coquettish, graceful, funny, ditzy at times sophisticated and seductive but their gendered role is never in question rather it is accentuated in the musical role.

Musical
Concept and choreography: Alexandra Bachzetsis
Music: Lies Vanborm
Video: Hans Van Nuffel, Rutger De Brabander
Costumes: Frederick Denis, Isabelle Lhoas
Performers: Vela Arbutina, Alexandra Bachzetsis, Philippe Beloul, Anna Geering, Otobong Nkanga, Ayelen Parolin, Diederik Peeters, Gosie Vervloessem, Voin de Voin
Artistic advice: Lies Vanborm, Vela Arbutina, David Blum, mentors DasArts, Helga Duchamps, Joffrey Moolhuizen, Own, Julia Born, Martin Zimmermann, Katrin Glaus, Tina Bleuler, Jasmin Wenger
Production: Helga Duchamps, Brussel
Commissioned by: If I Can’t Dance, Amsterdam (Dutch premiere)
Co-produced by: Vooruit, Gent; Theater Gessnerallee, Zurich; If I Can’t Dance, Amsterdam; Huis- en Festival a/d Werf, Utrecht; DasArts Final Project, Amsterdam
Thanks to: Kaaitheaterstudio’s, Jonathan Wannyn, ET.
Financial supported: Pro-Helvetia, Arts Council of Switzerland, Präsidialdepartment der Stadt Zürich, Mondriaan Foundation