Culture is a golden thread woven through a dark world. The stage is a place where ideas and fantasy have complete freedom. Choreographer and dancer Isabelle Beernaert is an artist who constantly reinvents herself. Recently, she uncovered a surprising chapter in her family history that shed new light on her heritage. It turns out that through her great-grandmother, she carries Iberian Spanish, Portuguese, and North African blood in her veins, which means her DNA—alongside her French and Belgian roots—is a rich blend of different cultures and legacies. This knowledge can be disruptive, but also illuminating. Intuitively, at a deeper level, she always felt a kinship with all these different cultures. She has found her place and mission in the cosmic womb with space and time as decorative elements. The raw material she set to work with.
Art about the present always speaks to the past, and art about the future always speaks to the present. All her works are laden with meaning. She champions women's rights. Her activism runs through her productions. By focusing on heritage, the blending of cultures and bloodlines, she delivers with 'La Dame en Noir' a stunning example of intersectional thinking. In black, all colors exist. Black absorbs. Black is the color of rest, silence, and darkness. A child in the womb grows in the dark. Black is pregnant with light. Isabelle Beernaert is a storyteller. She drew inspiration from the primordial mother found in virtually every culture. Women who draw strength from within. The idea evolved into a vigorous total spectacle featuring words, dance, live percussion—the drum as a symbol of the earth's heartbeat.
Complementarity
She surrounded herself with kindred spirits: percussionist and composer Bart Gits. He is fascinated by Japanese taiko drums, which are part of traditional Japanese theater and musical genres. Groups travel the world with their large drums under the banner 'Kodo,' which means 'heartbeat' in Japanese. The set design is by Tom De Houwer, a Belgian creator known as one of the most talented floral designers of our time. He created a frozen forest. Thanks to the skillful lighting by Frederic Reggers, the tree trunks evoke a magical silver birch forest. Then there are the visuals by Janosh. His compelling images are dynamic combinations of sacred geometry. The geometric projections, like mandalas infused with cosmic forces, emerge from the darkness and gradually reveal their intricate patterns and vibrant colors as the performance progresses. And of course, eight fantastic dancers and taiko instrumentalists. Together they tell a connecting story. All these elements culminate in a coherent, emotional, and authentic act.
Maker and Performer
Theater is an endless process of exploring the tension between the reality of the stage and the reality of life itself. Isabelle Beernaert doesn't wear her heart on her sleeve in the superficial sense. As both a human and a choreographer, she transcends the surface. She feels connected to the invisible. Last year, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. With fighting spirit and lust for life, she underwent the healing process. Music, and especially drums, helped in the healing process and the search for connection. Transcendence is what gives her work meaning.
This artist is a generous yet demanding choreographer who requires profound commitment from her dancers. Time and again, she knows how to move audiences. Upon entering the theater, sound creates a mystical atmosphere. A pentagram is projected on the stage curtain. The performance begins with heavy bass tones and the ethereal sound of a flute. Across the sparsely lit stage, women move in long, flowing black dresses. They move with restraint yet full of grandeur in a set designed like the bare skeleton of a primordial forest. Magic is drawn from the diffuse shadows. You see moving silhouettes, only their faces and hands illuminated in the dark setting. The soundscape is a maelstrom of sound. In an alternation of varied melodic tones, a carefully measured rhythm is distilled for the dancers. Whirling in the strangest formations. The fluid movement language, sometimes exuberant and then again subdued, flows seamlessly with the incantatory music. Bodies radiating primal dynamism. Falling and rising again.
The audience catches fleeting glimpses of actions and images from diverse cultures: a shamanic purification ritual, whirling dervishes turning on their axis, a flash of flamenco, the ritualistic dance around a Native American totem. A dancer is accompanied by frame drums and enters a trance. The whole is intimate, mesmerizing, primal. Playing the large drum is a ritual. Human and instrument become one. The collective playing of the taikos is music that penetrates your skin, stirs the marrow in your bones, stimulates your heartbeat. I know little of traditional Eastern music forms, but the drums sound in unison, virtuosic and captivating. An enormous gong, whose resonance lingers, is played with various tools and radiates positive energy. There is dancing, singing, musicmaking, laughter. Beernaert knows how to fill the space with pulsating energy that is simultaneously spiritual, sensual, and intellectual.
If everything begins dark and black, color is gradually introduced in measured doses. The final scene ends in a kaleidoscope of colors, each associated with a feeling: yellow, energy and light; red, love but also danger; green, balance and life; white, purity; purple, magic and mystery; orange, playfulness; pink, love and care; brown, earthy and rich. 'La Dame en Noir' is one of Isabelle Beernaert's strongest and most surprising works. A fascinating spectacle, a feast for the eyes and ears.
During the curtain call, everyone's name is projected. An ecstatic applause follows. Dance combined with taiko playing, large drums, and frame drums was tremendously enjoyed by the audience. Beernaert maintains control until the very end. The colorful scarves are folded and stowed away simultaneously during the applause. And so 'La Dame en Noir' remains.
Tickets & Info:https://isabellebeernaert.com/nl/voorstelling/la-dame-en-noir
