ALEXANDER VANTOURNHOUT

Tall and slender, they both have the same size but not the same morphology. Though trained dancers, they do not pretend to be virtuosos. Far from standard, virtual or instagrammed aesthetics, Axel Guérin and Alexander Vantournhout have chosen, precisely, to show the spontaneous and sometimes funny beauty of the “human animal” through this subtly funny duo. Movement after movement, through a series of reciprocal contracts and support, they assist one another in their search for balance. A rehabilitated touch becomes the central theme of the performance and the ultimate instrument through which to achieve harmony. Unlike the pas de deux of the repertoire, here even the solos created hand in hand, in a constant back and forth between the two performers. Meanwhile, symmetry plays out as much vertically, following the classic concept of elevation, as on a horizontal or diagonal axis, creating confusing interlocking and unexpected shapes … From the forefront, where this fraternal joust begins, scenography and light guide the audience’s eye to the vanishing point of the dance floor, cut into a trapezoid, while the percussion orchestrated by Andrea Belfi organically links sound and movement. Between symmetry and dissonance, fusion and parity: a new way of being two.

Alexander Vantournhout
A choreographer and performer born in Brussels, Alexander Vantournhout studied contemporary dance at the P.A.R.T.S. school, directed by Anne Teresa de Kersmaecker, and followed the curriculum of the ESAC Higher School of Circus Arts. Nourished by these two aesthetics, he has been creating pieces since 2014 – including the notable Aneckxander – at the frontiers of several art forms and which explore the fields of the possible, both physically and kinetically, from their constraints.