The fresco ‘Porte de Namur ! – Porte de l’Amour ?’ by artist Chéri
Samba represents an imaginary gathering of members of the local
community on the Chaussée d’Ixelles in Brussels, near Porte de Namur.
Since it was first exhibited in 2002, this image has been widely
disseminated and has sparked a great deal of controversy. On 25 June
2011 this fictitious scene will become reality, as the 80 or so people
who posed for the artist create a tableau vivant in the very place where
the painting was originally conceived.

The choreographer Ula Sickle has created solos for, and together with, two young dancers from Kinshasa, Dinozord and Jolie Ngemi. The first solo seeks out the roots of hip hop, the second one samples music videos and nightclub acts.

Carried by Beethoven’s Symphony No.7, Michèle Anne de Mey’s Neige is a dreamlike odyssey into immaculate expanses where enchantment fights it to the death. A work of maturity and contemplation.

For You’ve changed, Thomas Hauert has asked Dick Van der Harst to compose an original music on an improvised choreographic piece caught on video. The resulting music, written for a three-headed rock band and three female singers, answers movement on stage.

After the debate Kernenergie. Maken we ons illusies? (in Dutch), the theatre-maker Davis Freeman will present the occasionally hilarious but none the less highly relevant performance Seven Promises in the Kaaicafé. Together with the actor Jerry Killick, he plays the part of a green preacher and they try to persuade the audience to make ‘sustainable’ promises.

For his second opera production, Jan Decorte, the uncrowned king of Flemish theatre turns once again to the English baroque composer, Henry Purcell. The Indian Queen (1695) is a ‘semi-opera’. Decorte’s quest for basic simplicity is perfectly in keeping with the strength and freshness of this ‘not-yet-opera’.

A leading figure on the New York scene, Richard Maxwell has conquered the world with his inimitable style. Supported by surgically precise language, his intimist theatre exposes the American myths buried under modern life. He describes Neutral Hero as a ‘country opera’.

CANCELLED! In this new work, the Canadian choreographer and dancer Benoit Lachambre tries to give us a different view of ourselves, our body and our language. On stage: a male solo dance and two female dancers/actresses in a possible symbiosis. And music by the well-known New York composer Hahn Rowe.

An evening of dance and music set to a composition by Bela Bartókand György Ligetii. All the music will be performed live. An exciting complicity develops between the musicians and the dancers.

Want to see beyond the backdrop? In five talks (in Dutch), the Kaaitheater will guide you through the oeuvres of several leading artists on the programme this season. Between the talk and the show we shall satisfy your other appetites with soup and bread.

Four female dancers in rapport with one another and five chapters full of intense physical energy. The music by Thierry De Mey and Peter Vermeersch was created simultaneously and in interaction with the choreography.