These videos are an artistic investigation of the body in urban contexts, using dance, video, and performance to make visible the poetry and estrangement of everyday life. Dance serves as a tool to reveal unspoken emotions.
Between Aisles and Arguments
How free is the body to express itself in the everyday environment of a store? In this duet, the hidden emotions of a couple are amplified during the ordinary moment of shopping together. What happens when we allow ourselves to let go?
Duration: 1.45
Dancers : Piriek l’Istelle Vincent van Nieuwenhuizen
Music. : Tjalling Abma
Editing : Petra van Aken (2017)
Harig mannetje (Hairy Little Man)
Born from the project Vast The Hairy Little Man is a character that appears here and there, estranged and lost in a city that does not see him. This is an investigation into normality and social invisibility in public space, exploring what happens to an individual who does not integrate into urban dynamics.
Duration: 2.45 min
Dancer : Petra van Aken
Editing : Jeroen Bos (2023)
Abri
This work explores the interplay between the rhythm of waiting, the rushing trams, and human imagination, trapped in an Abri and an arbitrary system.
Duration: 1.17 min
Dancer : Petra van Aken
Editing : Jeroen Bos (2023)
The Elevator
In this video, we follow a meal delivery worker who spends much of her time in liminal spaces: deserted corridors, elevators, and stairwells of various apartment buildings. To disrupt the everyday rhythm of opening and closing elevator doors and brief encounters, she dreams of dance-filled encounters. How can dance create meaning in a banal, alienating, repetitive environment?
Duration: 7 min
Dancer : Petra van Aken
Editing : Jeroen Bos (2024)
The Compass
This scene is about constantly reorienting oneself in a new space, always asking: “Are we keeping enough distance from each other?” The dancers hold the DuetPret sticks on their heads, like a compass, in formation. They continuously scan their surroundings with minimal movements, attuned to the space they occupy.
Duration: 2.05 min Dancers : Editing : Jeroen Bos Music : Biosphere Cloud walker II
Molecularizing
In this part, the idea of connection becomes visible. Despite physical distance, people are fundamentally always connected, just as everything is connected at the molecular level. The dancers are linked by the DuetPret sticks and move through different locations, slowly disappearing as the structure of molecules becomes visible.
Duration: 2.38 min Music : Kaiser Quartett Schram