The NEAR FUTURE by Jan Martens, amplified conjugation

On July 19, Belgian choreographer Jan Martens presented his CLOSE FUTURE in the Cour d’Honneur. A daring bet, that of a large piece for seventeen dancers and a harpsichord, revised to the dimensions of the historic setting of the Palais des Papes. Evocation.

It took a meeting, like love at first sight. That of Jan Martens and the harpsichord, a baroque figure, forgotten for a time, brought up to date by modern composers. For the choreographer, this encounter is like his work: it is from the margins that we have to make things happen. His first use of the harpsichord was with any attempt will end in crushed bodies and shattered bones. A show created – and applauded – in 2021 at the festival, choreography for dancers aged 17 to 70, around the concerto for harpsichord and strings Op.40 by Henry Gorecki, questioning the immobility of men in the face of a changing, frightening world. The Flemish artist then extended the discovery of the instrument by investigating the life of the creator of the work, Elisabeth Chojnacka, with ELISABETH GETS HER WAY. His formal research around an instrument that is largely classified as a forgotten one has enabled the Flemish artist to discover the richness of contemporary creation. By modern works and composers, of course, but also, above all, by his very particular sound. Metallic, almost aggressive at times, ultra current. It is in this sense that the harpsichord revised by Jan Martens was in the spotlight in the Cour d’Honneur. We immediately understand it, when, when the dark has just been done on the stands, Goshka Isphording enters the scene , performer and former student of Elisabeth Chojnacka herself. She settles down on the long wooden bench that occupies the center of the stage. Unavoidable, she will hold the entire room with her fingertips, from the heart of her constant energy, aligning the contemporary works of Peteris Vasks, Anna S. Bordvaldsottir, Janco Verduin, Graciane Finzi and Aleksandra Gryka. Around this wooden bench, created at the size of the Cour d’Honneur by Joris van Oosterwijk, fifteen dancers from the Opera Ballet Vlaanderen and two teenage girls, magnetic, dynamic, electric. A modern corps de ballet, where each identity is essential, highlighted and embodied.

Sound, body, voices

NEAR FUTURE evokes the possibility of change, at a time of climate change and post-COVID. Pivotal scene, a ritual bath in a large basin of water brought to the stage by the dancers perhaps symbolizes our world which is fleeing, both literally and figuratively. Around the large wooden bench, the dancers will evolve for an hour and a half. Precise, mechanical, rhythmic. Not a misstep in this ballet regulated to the millimeter, which sometimes escapes our understanding but not our attention. During a meeting with the choreographer, before the performances in Avignon, and after watching the show run, he told us that the show could still move. We had witnessed a happy succession of an hour of diverse, refined, carried away scenes. The opening was done in an almost amorous parade, a duo of dancers. The bathing scene came at the end of the show. A moment of bodily intimacy captured by video was projected almost awkwardly, noticeably, a mirror of our revealing internets. Here, this moment is immense, like the Court, and the video of the dancers is projected on the back wall, amplifying an intimacy that is found, although hyper aesthetic and superbly impressive, slightly diminished. Yet another scene, which caught our attention, very classic bends that gradually become crazy, is slightly lost in the rest of the room. Jan Martens had sworn that everything could change. Everything changed. And FUTUR CLOSE will still have to bend to the sets on which it will begin its tour. For us, it will be this fall. We will come back to this in our pages, in the near future, which will definitely change. But ultimately exciting.