Double

Four people are looking for a place of refuge. The forest of bars seems to suggest a prison, but also serves as a hideout for lovers and a symbol for souls’ inner conflicts. A colourful landscape offers a secretive location for sensual fireworks of dreams, desires and fears. The lost souls finally succeed in transcending all borders through the power of love.

The dance piece “Double” shows a symbiosis of sound and movement in a poetic crossover of cultures. The unique physical language joins hip-hop, breakdance and tap dance with modern African folklore. The music is composed of jazz vocals, guitar melodies and percussion. The pure joy of life and deep pain are closely allied; rarely does the melding of dance and music succeed as captivatingly, abstractly and emotionally.

Nono Battesti was born in Haiti in 1988 and grew up in a family of artists with his sister Dyna. He studied dance in Belgium, New York, Germany and Moscow. He combines soul, pop and contemporary dance with African elements in his choreographies. In 2006, he founded the Compagnie Dessources; its members include his sister as a jazz singer and the two Belgian artists – and married couple – Juliette Colmant and Quentin Halloy. For “Double”, the company won the audience prize of the Festival OFF d’Avignon in 2016; in the summer of 2018, they sold out three weeks of presentations here with their new piece “Trance” (2017).