STAYIN ALIVE – Sneak Preview
Mark Tompkins offers a first look at his work process during his residency at Tanzquartier Wien in STAYIN ALIVE. The performance is a meditation on ageing and death. How is one to deal with accepting one’s own age? Mark Tompkins faces the inevitable transformation of body, mind and soul. In doing so, the France-based choreographer challenges the way society treats elderly people, who are generally considered as being devoid of elegance and creativity.
He merges several characters of different age, sex and gender with real and fictional memories into a game of dance, poetry and music. On this trip full of surprises, Mark Tompkins is assisted by Jean-Louis Badet, his closest associate for 30 years, responsible for both stage and costume design. Frans Poelstra, Tompkins’ alter ego for 40 years, directs.
“And in the end the love you take is equal to the love you make.” The Beatles
founded the company I.D.A. – INTERNATIONAL DREEMS ASSOCIATED in 1983. He advocates a free, nomadic way of working without artistic blinders, and a penchant for real-time composition. More than 30 solos and group pieces fusing dance, song, text and video have come into being on this journey that began in the 1970s.
ompkins has been touring the world with his pieces and workshops. Fascinated by the friction between high culture and entertainment, he has repeatedly included popular forms like variety, musical and burlesque in his performances. The indefinable performance objects oscillating between dance, theatre and music have become the American choreographer’s trademark.
Credits
Part of TQW Reopening
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