Figures in Flight - Shane Urton

A playful dance performance about daring to dream for the whole family. What if you really wanted to fly... and just tried it? Figures in Flight is an imaginative dance performance for a young audience about big dreams, small failures and the courage to start again. Choreographer Shane Urton was inspired by the wonderful machines of Antwerp artist Panamarenko that just can't fly. We meet Pepto Bismo, who falls out of the sky and lands in his own head: a place full of ideas, doubts, hope and imagination. Other figures also appear there who help him search for ways to perhaps be able to fly after all. Because failure is not an end, but a starting point. The choreographer weaves elements from the Greek myth of Icarus – who flew too close to the sun and crashed – with the playful world of Panamarenko and his famous sculpture Pepto Bismo on Antwerp's Sint-Jansplein. In the music, the cheeky waltzes of Johann Strauss II are distorted and interwoven with cheerfully buzzing motors and rustling propellers. Figures in Flight is an ode to everyone who dares to dream. The performance is preceded by a short film about artist Panamarenko, specially made for a young audience (approx. 20 min.). In this diptych, Panamarenko's wonderful world takes centre stage, in which technology and art go hand in hand and which is pervaded by boundless imagination.