Drawn to dance

There is no doubt about it: the choreographer Karine Ponties (of Cie Dame de Pic) has a knack of coming up with intriguing titles. In the wake of Holeulone and Humus Vertebra, she now presents Lamali Lokta, a contemporary choreography that draws on the imaginative world of drawing. Lokta lama-li is painstakingly worked-on handmade paper, cooked in water, boiled, and beaten to ensure it is flexible and resistant. The work’s visual world is inspired by the Italian artist Beatrice Alemagna, author and illustrator of books for children and young people (Bugs in a Blanket, My Friend, etc.) – a graphic, poetic world, both in its characters and its landscapes. Alemagna’s illustrations are made using paper, cloth, a variety of pencils, and quite a lot of movement. This is a world well suited to Karine Ponties, who has already collaborated with superb illustrators and visual artists in the past, including Stefano Ricci and Thierry Van Hasselt. The result each time has been a distinctive, well-constructed dialogue that fills us with wonder. Onstage are five dancers and their shadows. And the world of childhood. According to the company, “…from the first surging line, five figures appear, escaping their fiction, falling from the page to the floor. Five inadequate characters in search of themselves, breaching reality, attempting to reconstruct themselves and gather together.” Dance, illustration, and the strange poetry of Karine Ponties…

Karine Ponties: Lamali Lokta
6 > 10/3, 20.30, €8/12,
LES BRIGITTINES, Korte Brigittinenstraat 1 Petite rue des Brigittines, Brussel/Bruxelles,
02-213.86.10, www.brigittines.be