#THISISBEAUTY

Argentine dancer and choreographer Lisi Estaras has been dancing with Alain Platel's renowned Flemish dance company les ballets C de la B for more than twenty years. She developed her own methodology called 'monkeymind', which approaches dance as an impulsive flow of thoughts around themes like confusion, humour and ambiguity.

This is no different in #THISISBEAUTY, a solo performance to mark her fiftieth birthday. With her trademark disarming smile, Estaras explores to the point of absurdity how words relate to meanings, meanwhile fooling around with the dance world, and not least with herself as a 50-year-old dancer struggling with age, sexuality and gender.-|-Inspired by the philosophical work of Ludwig Wittgenstein and by 50-year-old women she specially interviewed for this solo, Estaras creates a powerful piece of physical fiction for #THISISBEAUTY. The solo is a philosophical thought experiment, a parody of the dance world and a vulnerable self-portrait all rolled into one. Accompanied by a soundscape of orca sounds and church hymns, Estaras makes you feel like you are watching a fish in an aquarium: 'ferocious and untameable', as one reviewer aptly described.

Concept, text, choreography & performance Lisi Estaras
Dramaturgy Sara Vanderieck
Sound design Tom Daniëls
Light Design Helmut Van Den Meersschaut
Costume Design Marie Szersnovicz
Costumer Performance Odile Dubucq
Artistic Advice Kristien De Proost
Philosophical advice Carla Carmona
Product direction & communication Hilde Debruck
MonkeyMind Company Management Nicole Petit
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Distribution Plan B and Rosie Productions
Production MonkeyMind Company/MonkeyMind vzw
Coproduction Festival Bits of Dance Brugge (B), MA Scène Nationale Montbéliard (F)
Residencies KAAP Bruges, MA Scene Nationale Montbéliard, Tanzhaus Zürich, BAMP Brussel
With the support of CAMPO, les balllets C de la B en KC nona
With thanks to Rose, Liora, Mirko and Ludwig
Realised with project grant from the Flemish government