Man Made
2018 - Director : Centre national de la danse, Réalisation
Choreographer(s) : Martens, Jan (Belgium)
Present in collection(s): CN D - Spectacles et performances
Video producer : Centre national de la danse
Integral video available at CND de Pantin
Man Made
2018 - Director : Centre national de la danse, Réalisation
Choreographer(s) : Martens, Jan (Belgium)
Present in collection(s): CN D - Spectacles et performances
Video producer : Centre national de la danse
Integral video available at CND de Pantin
Man Made
The title of the dance piece created by Jan Martens for DANCE ON ENSEMBLE is tinged with irony. At a time when the virtual and its traps are everywhere, Man Made draws on the memory and experience of five dancers to create a choreographic and social system rooted in the body. In a stripped-down world, everyone is listening – to others but also to Mattef Kuhlmey’s live electronic museum – to create in unison a dynamic, collaborative and profoundly human piece.
Source: program of the CND
Martens, Jan
Jan Martens (° 1984, Belgium) studied at the Fontys Dance Academy in Tilburg and graduated in 2006 from the dance department of the Artesis Royal Conservatoire of Antwerp. Since 2010 he has been making his own choreographic work which, over the years, has been performed with increasing regularity before a national and international audience.
The work of Martens is nurtured by the belief that each body can communicate, that each body has something to say. That direct communication expresses itself in transparent forms. His work is a sanctuary in which the notion of time becomes tangible again and in which there is room for observation and emotion as well as reflection. To achieve this result he creates not so much a movement language of his own, but shapes and reuses existing idioms in a different context so that new ideas emerge. In each new work he tries to redraw the relation between public and performer.
Martens’ first production I CAN RIDE A HORSE WHILST JUGGLING SO MARRY ME (2010) was a portrait of a generation of young women in a society dominated by social networks. It was followed by two love duets that he made at Frascati Amsterdam. A SMALL GUIDE ON HOW TO TREAT YOUR LIFETIME COMPANION (2011) was selected for Aerowaves 2011 and SWEAT BABY SWEAT (2011) for the Dutch Dance Festival 2012 and Circuit X 2013. He then created three shows about unconventional beauty, with performers whose bodies you do not expect in the context of contemporary dance: BIS (2012) for the then 62-year-old Truus Bronkhorst, LA BETE (2013) for the young actress Joke Emmers, and VICTOR (2013), a duet for a boy and a grown man that Martens created with director Peter Seynaeve.
In 2014 Martens focused attention on the jump as movement in the group performance THE DOG DAYS ARE OVER (2014). The production was selected for the Flanders Theatre Festival and is still touring, just like Martens’ solo ODE TO THE ATTEMPT (2014) and the project THE COMMON PEOPLE (2016), a performance, social experiment and workshop in one, created in collaboration with film director Lukas Dhont. Martens’ show RULE OF THREE (2017) was a collaboration with the American sound artist NAH, and had its premiere at deSingel in Antwerp where Martens started his trajectory as creative associate in 2017. The performance got nominated for a Zwaan (Swan) in the category ‘most impressive dance production 2018.’ De Zwanen are seen as the most prestigious dance prize within the Dutch performing arts field.
In the 18/19 season, Martens engaged in three collaborations. Together with 13 youths and fABULEUS, he created PASSING THE BECHDEL TEST, a theatrical production in which the voices of the youths are interwoven with the voices of famous and less famous women from the present and the past. He also revised the successful 2011 production A SMALL GUIDE ON HOW TO TREAT YOUR LIFETIME COMPANION with two new dancers under the title PAULINE THOMAS as commissioned by CDCN Le Gymnase in Roubaix. In January 2019, Martens himself took the stage again in the solo lostmovements, in which he plunges into the universe of choreographer and friend Marc Vanrunxt (Kunst/Werk). In 19/20 Martens’ focus is on the premiere of any attempt will end in crushed bodies and shattered bones. A work for seventeen dancers between the ages of 15 and 68. The premiere – scheduled for April 24, 2020 at DE SINGEL (Antwerp, BE) was postponed due to the corona crisis and took in the end place on July 18 at Festival d’Avignon. On July 12, 2021 ELISABETH GETS HER WAY premiered at Julidans (Amsterdam, NL). This solo created and performed by Jan Martens is a danced portrait of the Polish-born Elisabeth Chojnacka (1939–2017), an exceptionally talented and passionate musician who contributed to the revival of harpsichord music in the middle of the twentieth century.
In 2014 Jan Martens founded, together with business manager Klaartje Oerlemans, the choreographic platform GRIP in Antwerp / Rotterdam, from where they jointly produce and distribute his work as well as support the work of Cherish Menzo and Steven Michel.
Source : https://www.grip.house/
Centre national de la danse, Réalisation
Since 2001, the National Center for Dance (CND) has been making recordings of its shows and educational programming and has created resources from these filmed performances (interviews, danced conferences, meetings with artists, demonstrations, major lessons, symposia specialized, thematic arrangements, etc.).
DANCE ON ENSEMBLE
The DANCE ON ENSEMBLE embodies our central aim: to show how dance as an art form benefits from experienced dancers.
Whereas only young bodies are associated with beauty and virtuosity on stage, DANCE ON is formulating what will hopefully be a trend-setting perspective for the development and presentation of the artistic potential of mature dancers. The added physical intelligence, confidence and expressiveness of the latter arise from lived experience. In addition to sound knowledge of numerous dance techniques and choreographic styles, mature dancers also have in-depth awareness of the impact of their own bodies in movement.
As from 2019 Ty Boomershine will be responsible for upcoming artistic direction of the DANCE ON ENSEMBLE.
Man Made
Artistic direction / Conception : Jan Martens
Artistic direction assistance / Conception : En collaboration avec Ty Boomershine, Amancio Gonzalez, Brit Rodemund, Christopher Roman et Jone San Martin
Choreography : Jan Martens
Interpretation : Ty Boomershine, Brit Rodemund, Christopher Roman, Jone San Martin, Frédéric Tavernini
Artistic consultancy / Dramaturgy : Renee Copraij
Original music : Mattef Kuhlmey
Lights : Dominique Pollet, Patrick Lauckner
Costumes : Sophia Piepenbrock-Saitz
Production / Coproduction of the choreographic work : Spectacle créé le 11 mars 2017 à Kampnagel – Hambourg.
Roots of Diversity in Contemporary Dance
New breath : 21st century youth enters the world of dance
(LA)HORDE: RESIST TOGETHER
Les Rencontres chorégraphiques internationales de Seine-Saint-Denis
Vlovajobpru company
Amala Dianor: dance to let people see
Body and conflicts
A look on the bonds which appear to emerge between the dancing body and the world considered as a living organism.
The national choreographic centres
[1970-2018] Neoclassical developments: They spread worldwide, as well as having multiple repertoires and dialogues with contemporary dance.
James Carlès
Do you mean Folklores?
Presentation of how choreographers are revisiting Folklore in contemporary creations.
Maison de la danse
Dancing bodies
Focus on the variety of bodies offered by contemporary dance and how to show these bodies: from complete nudity to the body completely hidden or covered.