Zulu Nation is this year once again returning to the Kaaitheater with the Battle of the Year – Benelux selection. On Saturday 30 May, B-Boy teams from Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxemburg will compete for a ticket to the legendary BOTY International. Lezarts Urbains is programming Belgian and international bands and dance crews from the amateur and professional circuits on Friday evening and Saturday afternoon.

Marianne Van Kerkhoven is one of the leading and most influential dramaturges and critics/essayists in Flanders and beyond. Her aesthetic and political views have inspired generations of directors and choreographers. Together with Sarma, the Kaaitheater and the Kunstenfestivaldesarts have invited her to give a talk on the last day of the festival, to be held on the stage of the Kaaitheater.

In Japanese, suteru means “rid oneself of” and tabi “journey” or “occasion”. Suteru Tabi is the moving story of a young man who is trying to cope with the death of his father. Out of the loss and mourning he becomes stronger and succeeds in taking responsibility for his life. With just four chairs and a handful of props, the Japanese author and director Shiro Maeda creates a performance rich in imagery that combines poetry with humour, magic and realism.

In the mini-trilogy Walk Talk Chalk, walk stands for movement, talk for word and text and chalk for the mark or trace. In each module of his triptych, Pierre Droulers tries to penetrate to the root of the following question: how does man make his existence tolerable? He moves, talks and creates....

Two Brussels-based collectives – the Dutch-speaking Tristero and the French-speaking Transquinquennal – have decided to work together. Both partners in this exceptional coalition have a reputation for seeking out unknown and/or contemporary pieces. In Coalition they take a closer look at events which need not have happened and might not have happened, but which did happen: from the most banal traffic accidents to major disasters involving thousands of deaths. In other words: things could have turned out differently.

Over the last few years, the Mechelen collective Abattoir Fermé has built up a strong repertoire that swings between dream, hallucination and nightmare. Snuff (Index 1) is the company’s first production for the large stage. It premieres at the Kaaitheater.

In 2009, Sarma, the Brussels centre for criticism, research, dramaturgy and creation, will be compiling a collection of writings by the theatre and dance critic Pieter T’Jonck. An initial selection will be published online in April and on that occasion Sarma will be organising a lecture demonstration in which T’Jonck both explains and stages his thoughts on theatricality.

Russia in 1920: the artistic and social revolution are flourishing but the bewilderment is total when Stalin’s merciless trials start. The lyrics in this musical theatre show consist of a literal transcription of the final minutes in the trial of Fyodor Bukharin interwoven with extracts from the work of Daniil Harms, another victim of Stalin’s terror. William Kentridge is responsible for the animated film and the directing, and François Sarhan, whose fantastic L’Nfer was performed at the Kaaitheater earlier in the season, wrote the music.

It was while working on De versie Claus that the writer Mark Schaevers and theatre-maker Josse De Pauw were caught unawares by the news that Hugo Claus had chosen to have his life brought to an end. Their ‘Claus version’, intended as a tribute, now became a memorial for the master of Flemish literature.

Apart from two permanent members, Natali Broods, Robby Cleiren, Tine Embrechts and Nico Sturm will join in the creation and performance of STUKKEN which will have its opening performance in Kaaitheater. The material of the performance is provided by the writers Saskia De Coster, Patricia De Martelaere, Tom Lanoye, Bart Moeyaert, Yves Petry and Annelies Verbeke.

New choreography by Marc Vanrunxt for the dancer Eva Kamala Rodenburg, in collaboration with the photographer David Bergé and the researcher Myriam Van Imschoot. The solo becomes a projection plane for passing images, shapes and movements. This choreography is like an installation still under construction, pushing its ultimate identity in front of it.