CHERISH MENZO / GRIP & FRASCATI PRODUCTIES

In DARKMATTER, Cherish Menzo and her onstage partner Camilo Mejía Cortés look for ways to detach their bodies from the way they are perceived and the daily reality in which they move. Among other things, they look up to the sky, at dark matter and at black holes that meet and collide to give birth to a new, (afro)futuristic and enigmatic body. DARKMATTER wants to get rid of the biased way of looking at one’s own body, at that of the other, and at the stories we attribute to them. Together, they throw their bodies into a complex conversation that they want to both enter into and transcend – a duality that feeds the performance.

Born in the Netherlands, Cherish Menzo has worked with Lisbeth Gruwez, Jan Martens and Nicole Beutler and has collaborated with artists such as Akram Khan, Ula Sickle, Olivier Dubois and Eszter Salamon. Her powerful language of movement is evident in her own work. Cherish has received several prestigious awards. She is interested in the transformation of the body on stage and the “embodiment” of different physical images. Through distortion, decay and dissonance, she attempts to separate bodies from forced perceptions and everyday bodily realities, underlining the complexity and contradictory nature of images that seem recognizable at first glance.

Concept and Choreography Cherish Menzo / Creation and performance Camilo Mejía Cortés, Cherish Menzo / Lighting design Niels Runderkamp / Musical composition Gagi Petrovic, Michael Nunes / Mastering Gagi Petrovic / Music list via www.grip.house or www.frascatitheater.nl / Scenography Morgana Machado Marques / Costume design JustTatty.com / Dramaturgy Renée Copraij, Benjamin Kahn b/ Text Cherish Menzo, Camilo Mejía Cortés, BOИSU, Shari Kok-Sey-Tjong / Vocal and delivery coaching BOИSU, Shari Kok-Sey-Tjong / Artistic advice Christian Yav, Nicole Geertruida / Voices distorted Rap choir via www.distortedrapchoir.com / With references to and inspired by Act I of the American Opera Troubled Island by William Grant Still (1949); BLACKSPACE: ON THE POETICS OF AN AFROFUTURE by Anaïs Duplan; The Mask by Paul Laurens Dunbar; Video clip Throw it back (2019) by Missy Elliot;  The Mythology of the American electronic music duo Drexciya / Techincians Niels Runderkamp, Amber Stallenberg/ Sander Cools
Production GRIP, Frascati Producties (Anneleen Hermans, Eryn Kelly, Sam Loncke, Rudi Meulemans, Lize Meynaerts, Klaartje Oerlemans, Jennifer Piasecki, Charlotte Roosblad, Dominique Sikkema, Sylvie Svanberg, Mark Timmer, Ruud Van Moorleghem, Heske van den Ende, Petra van der Meulen, Pauline Van Nuffel, Nele Verreyken) / International distribution A Propic – Line Rousseau, Marion Gauvent / Coproduction Kunstenfestivaldesarts (Brussels, BE), CCN-Ballet national de Marseille dans le cadre de l’accueil studio / Ministère de la Culture (FR), actoral festival (Marseille, FR), STUK (Leuven, BE), La Villette (Paris, FR), Festival d’Automne à Paris (FR), Beursschouwburg (Brussels, BE), De Coproducers (NL), Perpodium (BE) / Residences STUK (Leuven, BE), La Villette (Paris, FR), Frascati (Amsterdam, NL), Beursschouwburg (Brussels, BE), CCN-Ballet national de Marseille dans le cadre de l’accueil studio / Ministère de la Culture (FR), Productiehuis Theater Rotterdam (NL) / In collaboration with Trill (Leuven, BE), WijzijnDOX (Utrecht, NL) / With the financial support of the Flemish Government, The Performing Arts Fund NL, Ammodo, Tax Shelter of the Belgian Federal Government, Cronos Invest / Thanks to Eric Cyuzuzo, Jan Fedinger, Dries Douibi, Khadija El Kharraz Alami

Una Hora Abans: April, Saturday 25