Thomas Steyaert / Ponyhill
This project explores the artistic practice and multiple output potentiality of a system of non-representational physical communication between performers. Their constant exchange of kinetic information is based on a decentered vision of the body. Using dependency as a motor for development, every stimulus is perceived and processed in real time while attempting not to name them. The emerging ever-regenerating flow of kinetic information creates multiple meanings, levels of instruction and sensations for the viewer. Instead of acting out a previously agreed representation of reality, they are engaging in a kind of physical discussion, embodying and trying to process what we understand, as well as what we don’t. The body practice could be seen in analogy to the inner movements of a society – movements that test, map and transform a specific existing structure in a specific moment of time, generating possibility for multiple readings, as well as recognition of basic human values and relational aspects. Until now the research resulted in three stage works, The Ballet of Sam Hogue and Augustus Benjamin, The Ballet of Albertina Macchiavello, Johnny McLay and Ignatz van Stereo and the Ballet of Paul Ace and Sunny Lovin as well as in numerous site specific performances and video works. The work was shown in many festivals, theaters and site-specific spaces in Europe and abroad.
The Ballet of Sam Hogue and Augustus Benjamin
Creation: Thomas Steyaert (BE) and Raul Maia (PT)
Interpretation: Sam Hogue and Augustus Benjamin
Light design: Bas Devos (BE)
Production: Ponyhill
Co-production: CC De Spil (Roeselare, BE), WUK (Vienna, A), Jardin d'Europe/eXplore Dance Festival (Bucharest, RO)
In co-operation with: ulti'mates/Ultima Vez (Brussels, BE)
Residencies: Kunstencentrum Buda (Kortrijk, BE), Jardin d'Europe eXplore Dance Festival (Bucharest, RO), Pianofabriek Kunstenwerkplaats (Brussels, BE), Workspace Brussels (BE) and Wolv (Vienna, A)
Supported by: MA7 - Kultur Stadt Wien, the Province of West-Flanders and Jardin d'Europe
Premiered at CC De Spil, Roeselare (BE) on the 15th of April 2011.
reviews
Der Standard - 01 April 2011 - by Helmut Ploebst
Deep-dance with saw-sound
Two young men get on stage via the audience entrance, put down their backpacks, their jackets, and actually all they have except for their incredibly un-sexy white and far too large underwear. There they are, Raul Maia and Thomas Steyaert, standing awkwardly on the empty stage of the Wuk-hall ready to dance their improvisation The Ballet of Sam Hogue and Augustus Benjamin.
In the end, after a good hour, its clear that this ballet (which is all in all the total opposite of ballet) is so far one of the best dance pieces seen in Vienna this season. Nothing dance-theater-like, no ‘meaningful’ gesture. Through ambiguous modes of communication, two bodies concentrate on what happens under our cultural masks and behaviors. Nothing about love, friendship, vice or antagonism, but tip-toe-ing around, measuring an intricate effort, a kind of loneliness in the confrontation with ones counterpart/opponent. The sound fits this depth: hammering, sawing, drilling and electronic noise.
An uncanny piece by two excellent dancers who have been working with Wim Vandekeybus’ company Ultima Vez.
Translation by David Helbich and Tawny Andersen
tanz.at - 02 April 2011 - by Ditta Rudle
Bodies speak volumes
“The Ballet of Sam Hogue and Augustus Benjamin“ is a fascinating dialogue between two bodies that uses a completely new language, far from any known gestus. Raùl Maia and Thomas Steyaert captivate with accuracy and precision, but they never miss out on theatrics and affect.
Two men - naked except for ridiculous, white shorts - try to come closer to each other in the dark. The roar of the ocean, the waves hitting the beach, two castaways fighting against the wind. One desperately struggling with a recurrent gesture of stretched and bent arms, the other walking upright, staggering. Neither of them reaches the other. Neither saves the other.
I don't know if Raùl Maia and Thomas Steyaert really do speak about a turbulent sea and a crash landing. It's the soundtrack on their Ballet of the Corpus, which constantly opens new spaces (more than once Sam Hogue and Augustus Benjamin got us excited as the alter egos of Steyaert and Maia). Later on, the music and the light guide me to a discotheque so as to end up in a dimmed love den. The speech of two bodies does not enter the ear nor the brain, but it directly enters the solar plexus.
The tension, and probably the stories as well, are generated not only by the intensive closeness of the performers (something they take the liberty of confronting us with), but also by the richness and depth of the emotions told by seemingly fragile bodies and ritualized gestures- entangled arms, twisted legs, hands carefully reaching out with curled fingers.
Scene by scene the two men communicate with their bodies, try out advances and rejections and tell about love, jealousy and indifference. Both performers have their own vocabulary: Maia is mostly upright walking and tiptoeing, while Steyaert focuses on the horizontal plane, crawling, rolling and freezing on his back or on his belly, one leg in the air, as if the film ripped.
The way the bodies communicate is very diverse: very slow and thoughtful (slow motion) or vehement and aggressive; far away from each other with the quasi-impossibility of communication, or entangled until the emotions constrain any articulation, until the 'words' are almost incomprehensible within all the stuttering and spluttering.
A manifestation of the idea, that we don’t necessarily need words to communicate and to understand each other. And of the fact that dance is able to find again and again new possibilities of expression.
For about 6 years the Portuguese Raùl Maia and the Belgian Thomas Steyaert (for some years dancers at Wim Vandekeybus / “Ultima Vez") have been developing a specific language for the body. The system of movements shouldn't consist of known symbols and pantomimic gestures, but uses a new vocabulary of the body. Originally begun as an improvisation and still called 'a project', this performance appears accurately worked out in all details, fascinating and surprising (also in its irony and hidden humor); it does not simply show the perfect technique of both performers, but is visually catching and emotionally satisfying.
Translation by David Helbich and Tawny Andersen.
KULTUR in Potsdam - 27 May 2013 - by Astrid Priebs-Tröger
Surprise at the Tanztagen: authentic, feminine warmth and live, masculine bodily communication.
Regular audiences know it very well: The Potsdamer Tanztage is always full of surprises. This year, Saturday evening's program took place entirely under the sign of nudity. We encountered it both literally and figuratively during the two German premieres of the evening. The two dancers who opened the double-bill in the Fabrik appeared without any announcement. Wearing alpine boots, pullovers and backpacks, they gave the impression of urban youngsters arriving too late for the show. Then, as they stepped determinedly onto the empty stage their performance, The ballet of Sam Hogue and Augustus Benjamin, began with another unusual action.
Thomas Steyaert and Raul Maia leisurely took off their clothes until they stood completely naked in front of us, before sliding into old-fashioned, cotton underpants. With this disrobing it seemed that they also shed their imprinted cultural layers. The fascinating live bodily communication that began to develop between them was accompanied by a soundtrack of recognizable noises such the swoosh of the wind, mixed with metallic sounds as well as familiar musical compositions. This background of cultural references served as a support for the lean and muscular figures who appeared as beings from another planet. Expressive and fragile, and without any masculine gestures of supremacy, they reminded us at times of the etchings of Goya or the drawings of Klee. Without a recognizable through-line, the two explored the possibilities that propel the body to move.
These had nothing to do with familiar dance vocabulary, nor with symbols or pantomime gestures. Their movements didn’t seem to be charged with any known meanings or emotions, and for this reason they enabled the formation of a series of images and situations in the spectator's ieye. By way of example, the movements of the two virtuous performers provoked free associations, suggestive at times of anonymous inmates of a medieval mad house or at other times of survivors of a catastrophe. For the Belgian Thomas Steyaert and the Portuguese Raul Maia, ambiguity was the goal. With their unusual movement laboratory they attempted to open surprising spaces within which they confront us with almost imperceptible nuances of humanity. The result was a concentrated tension interspersed by moments of unsettlement within the public, who in the end applauded reluctantly, but sincerely.
Translation by Heike Langendorf and Tawny Andersen
The Ballet of Albertina Macchiavello, Johnny McLay and Ignatz van Stereo
Concept: Thomas Steyaert (BE) and Raul Maia (PT)
Creation/Performance: Albertina Macciavello (Varinia Vila Canto), Johnny Mclay (Thomas Steyaert) and Ignatz van Stereo (Raul Maia)
Sound: Ivan Mijasevic (SLO), Raul Maia, Thomas Steyaert
Light: Bas Devos (BE)
Production: Ponyhill, La Cagada
Co-production: workspacebrussels, CC De Spil Roeselare, WUK (Werkstätten- und Kulturhaus), Jardin d’Europe
Residencies: workspacebrussels, STUK Leuven, TQW (Tanzquartier Wien), D.ID Dance Identity Pinkafeld
Co-operation: Ultima Vez
With support of Kulturabteilung der Stadt Wien (MA7)
Premiered at CC De Spil, Roeselare (BE) on the 7th of February 2013
Thanks to Herbert Gnauer and Tomate van Monte for the technical support.
reviews
Der Standard - 18 Februari 2013 - by Helmut Ploebst
Showdown under a star
A brilliant piece by Thomas Steyaert and Raul Maia: The Ballet of Albertina Macchiavello, Johnny Mclay and Ignatz van Stereo
Vienna: The figures strive for a sense of togetherness, although not using grand theatrical gestures, but rather through specifiic movement constellations. At first sight "The Ballet of Albertina Macchiavello, Johnny Mclay and Ignatz van Stereo" by Thomas Steyaert and Raul Maia, in collaboration with dancer Varinia Canto Vila, presented at Vienna's Wuk, is a mystery.
Who are these three people, warmly dressed and carrying backpacks, that walk onto the stage in the half-darkness? They could be characters out of a theatre piece or a narrative ballet. After all they carry names - something that is unusual in contemporary dance. Yet there is no drama, no narrative, no ballet. It is exactly this that seems to be the crucial point throughout the piece. We look at a strictly structured disorder of associations and potential relations. At the same time we witness a showdown of the postmodern cult of the signifier.
Gut Freedom
As the piece opens, the three bodies of the pseudo-characters interweave under the glow of a single ceiling light. We then see them wandering in a seemingly aimless manner about the stage. Their movements begin to collapse, to cramp, to run out of control. Without any pause, Macchiavello, Mclay and van Stereo take off their clothes under a row of flood lights, until they stand there in tight-fitted belly tops and high cut leggings. Blue, brown and white versions of the leotard - an apparel often worn in ballet and modern dance.
This ‘ballet’ is a modification of a previous work by Steyaert and Maia, The ballet of Sam Hogue and Augustus Benjamin. This refined version involves a reduced spectrum of symbols and distorted imagery which abolishes the heaviness of meaning, and establishes in its place a poetic reality. Thus what we see is not a mystery but a form of tight-rope act around Nietzsche’s Zarathustra's dictum: “One must still have chaos within oneself in order to give birth to a dancing star”
Lead by this star, the dancers retreat under the dance floor, which is transformed into a range of black mountains that rises from the clutter of the clothes and backpacks, but also of the stereotypes and fictions, they left behind. The elaborate sound by Ivan Mijacevic and the ingenious light-design by Bas Devos make out of this rather unsettling piece a truly brilliant work.
Translation by Heike Langendorf and Tawny Andersen
The Ballet of Paul Ace and Sunny Lovin
The Ballet of Paul Ace and Sunny Lovin is the 3rd stage work by Raul Maia and Thomas Steyaert. As in all of their previous works, non-representational physical communication plays an essential role in the performance. Their artistic practice aims to develop forms of physical behaviour without the use of recognisable gestures.
The 3rd work in the series introduces objects as mediums that mediate the communication and become animate as a result of the physical dialogue. Maia and Steyaert perform their dialogues within static and restricted physical configurations. Each configuration seems to impose a new form of language. The sum of these different physical languages outlines an absurd and puzzling experience.
Concept: Thomas Steyaert and Raul Maia
Sound: Peter Kutin, Raul Maia, Thomas Steyaert
Set design: Thomas Steyaert and Raul Maia
Light design: Sabina Wiesenbauer
Costumes: Irma Saje
Production assistent: Clélia Colonna
Co-production: WUK performing arts und Im_Flieger
Supported by Wild Card programme as part of Life Long Burning project
Residencies: JATKA78 (CZ) Tala Dance Center (HR), Espaço do Tempo (PT), Sítio / casa do Pombal (PT), Rivoli Teatro Municipal do Porto (PT), Im Flieger (AT).
reviews
Der Standard - 19 January 2018 - by Helmut Ploebst
Maia und Steyaert: Mit Fluxus und Solaris im rightigen Film.
Two men in a chirping, scraping, crackling parallel universe that reaches deep into "our" reality. Like a live projection, the stage lets this other world flare up, where Paul Ace and Sunny Lovin do a work we can only dream of. Because the two work in fantastic spatial shifts of communication - specifically in The Ballet of Paul Ace and Sunny Lovin by Raúl Maia and Thomas Steyaert, which is currently being premiered in the large hall of the Viennese workshop and culture house Wuk.
Maia and Steyaert seem to confirm the insight of the German sociologist Niklas Luhmann that not the human, but only the communication is able to communicate. Therefore, her characters Ace and Lovin could be understood as "communicationauts" who have maneuvered into something they seem to have mastered excellently - to make visible the enigmatic "system" (Luhmann) that fuels or brakes society or cool down and then seemingly drift away quietly.
Neither Ace nor Lovin are incarnations of characters, but more akin to the strange shapes projected by the intelligent ocean planet in Stanislaw Lem's Solaris out of the depths of the unconscious of its observers. In the piece, the performance takes over the irritating game of the planet. From slats, slabs and mats, Maia made a hint of space with Steyaert. This is supplemented with sound materials (collaborator: Peter Kutin) and drawn by Sabine Wiesenbauer through a light whose disturbingly seductive colors and blackouts give the impression that the audience is sitting in front of a live Fluxus experimental film.
The Ballet of Paul Ace and Sunny Lovin, however, is neither theories heavy nor irony laid out. On the contrary, the two adventurers let flash the joke necessarily for the uncanny nature of communication again and again. In doing so they dissect the pathos of their masculinity conceived in crafting and building with a selected wealth of ideas. The landscape of objects created in brilliant dramaturgy gives the audience a dazzling array of associations. Even the Solaris Planet emerges: in the form of a foil-wrapped ball, playing with the Ace and Lovin now and then. Especially when their faces are temporarily transformed into staring masks by glued paper eyes.
Tanz.at - 19 January 2018 - by Ditta Rudle
The two body artists, the Portuguese Raúl Maia and the Belgian Thomas Steyaert, show their third ballet. This time they are Paul Ace and Sunny Lovin, who wordlessly move out only with the body. It is not a language that they use, with repeated gestures and easily explainable, but their own way of communicating with the body. Or not to communicate, but that, as we know, is also a way of communicating. In any case, in this third "Ballet of ..." the precise choreography and the dancers' own mastery of the body, even into the last fiber of the big toe, are astonishing.
Since 2011, Maia and Steyaert, who have met as dancers with Wim Vandekeybus / Ultima Vez, work on the ballets of various imaginary figures, which, however, have no meaning, only serve as decoration of the title. In the first episode of the so far three "Ballets" "dance" - of course, no ballet is danced, actually not danced - Sam Hogue and Augustus Benjamin. For episode 2, Maia and Steyaert had gained female backing with Varinia Canto Vila: Albertina Macchiavello, Johnny Mclay and Ignatz van Stereo followed the star, who dominated in 2013 the final part of the "Ballet".
This time, in the third episode of this fine and extremely interesting work, it is Paul Ace and Sunny Lovin who make the title interesting and at the same time give an indication of the flashing irony that characterizes the "ballet" as well as the short blackouts and strobe effects hacked, scenes.
Although it is clear that here is a completely contentless, so not a burdened with considerations, messages, inquiries and other Schwulst performance to see yet again miniaturized stories. Two people communicate, however, so they have to deal with each other, even if they have nothing to do with each other.
As usual, Maia and Steyaert come on stage in their everyday garb, just minutes after chatting with the guests in the foyer, and start working immediately by setting up their home or planting their garden. Yes, for me, the accumulation of colorful mats and slats, of sawdust enriched with bits of paper, all sorts of miniature objects and possibly a cozy corner of planks, is a garden. In the corner the dancers put off their everyday clothes and show themselves in the devilish red body with bare legs and arms.
Paul Ace and Sunny Lovin are obviously workers. It is built and destroyed, raked and scattered, set up and overturned, hammered and smashed, and so it happens not only with the small objects in the installation, but also with the body. At first, the two performers do not even look at each other, working on their own and soon in sync. The arms are stretched, the toes bent; it is trampled and sat, tumbled and - no - not whistled but knocked (on the bush?). Also with the globe - or is it just a ball wrapped in foil? - is juggling. Think about what everyone likes. I remember, Raúl / Sunny and Thomas / Paul can turn the world upside down. It also gets scary for a short time. The two dancers stick paper eyes on their eyelids. Soon, however, I have gotten used to the small-screen masks. The movements show: you can see!
In the end, the two bodies have approached each other, resting for a short time like an egg with legs on the ground and then let a miniature robot make a few small steps and flutter a tiny colorful butterfly. This does not give up, flutters untiringly after the applause. The mini fan makes him breath.
The music (jungle sounds with chirping and creaking, building sounds with cockroaches, loops and rattles, soothing electronic sound) by Peter Kutin with the collaboration of the two dancers and the light of Sabina Wiesenbauer play with the audience the same game as Paul Ace and Sunny Lovin: always, if you think you can stand on solid ground again, to be able to interpret the gestures, this security is withdrawn. The music changes abruptly, the light flickers or fades completely and the gestures are cryptic again, never seen, not understood.
This stimulates the mind, which is tossed and turned in a circle, which makes the "Ballet" really exciting, also exciting and wonderfully transparent through the finely-spun irony. The joy of the aesthetics, the movements and the strange communication is not diminished by anything. You do not have to understand everything, you can also enjoy without understanding (mind?).
Therefore, I would like to express my hope that soon again a ballet of unknown figures will be on display.