GLITCH WITCH

Apparent contradictions give rise to a powerful group portrait

In GLITCH WITCH, choreographer Meg Stuart, dancer Omagbitse Omagbemi, and composer/musician Mieko Suzuki meet in a sparklingly desolate, enigmatically burned-out landscape. Moving within and beyond the personal histories imprinted on their bodies, they glide and glitch between different possible worlds—between above and below, between the before and after of every passing moment.

While trying to break the spell of personal and ancestral memories that keep them apart, they search for a not-yet-existent shared language. In their quest, a pulsating progression of shimmering, mutable dances unfolds. Within this series of overlapping movement patterns, the three women gradually uncover a shared (witch)craft: a resonant force of mutual transformations and a vulnerable ritual of solidarity that elevates them above their differences. Glitches emerge at the volatile points of their encounters, becoming a growing vocabulary of resistance and surrender, a collective chant that disrupts all enchantments.

This performance was created as part of a collaboration between Meg Stuart/Damaged Goods and the Berlin-based Dance On Ensemble, which works with dancers over the age of 40. Within their Encounters series, the company is launching new performances where the choreographer is visible as a dancer, engaging with a dancer from the ensemble.

credits

Meg Stuart: choreography
Omagbitse Omagbemi, Meg Stuart & Mieko Suzuki: dance
Mieko Suzuki: live music
Nadia Lauro: stage design
Nico de Rooij: lighting design
Claudia Hill: costume design, in collaboration with the performers
Igor Dobričić: dramaturgy
Luna Luz Sanchez & Valentin Braun: artistic assistance
Kahori Furukawa & Juliane Längin: costume assistance
Tom De Langhe: technical coordination
Vagelis Tsatsis: sound
Kevin Strik: lighting
Matty Zighem: stage manager
Hélène Philippot: production manager

production: Damaged Goods and DANCE ON / Bureau Ritter
co-production: Théâtre Garonne - scène européenne Toulouse, Centre Chorégraphique National d'Orléans - Direction Maud Le Pladec, HAU Hebbel am Ufer Berlin, Tanzquartier Wien, PACT Zollverein Essen, Kunstencentrum VIERNULVIER Gent & Perpodium
with the support of Goethe-Institut and the tax shelter measure of the Belgian federal government through Cronos Invest

The residency in Orleans is supported by Culture Moves Europe, a project funded by the European Union and Goethe-Institut.

Damaged Goods is supported by the Flemish Government and the Flemish Community Commission. Meg Stuart/Damaged Goods is artist-in-residence at Kunstencentrum VIERNULVIER (Ghent).

DANCE ON is a project of Bureau Ritter gUG, is supported by the German Government Commissioner for Culture and Media, the Senate Department for Culture and Social Cohesion of the State of Berlin and the Creative Europe programme of the European Union as part of DANCE ON, PASS ON, DREAM ON.