Finger programma

IT'S LIKE A FINGER POINTING A WAY TO THE MOON

Moya Michael, Victoire Karera Kampire, Simon Thierrée,
Joachim Ben Yakoub / KVS & WIELS

In It is like a Finger Pointing a Way to the Moon Moya Michael is searching for the movement of different unyielding languages.

After the celebrated Coloured Swan trilogy and Outwalkers, choreographer Moya Michael proposes to dance nearby the guardians of words, movements, and rhythms she encountered in South-Africa and Namibia. After meeting with !Amace, Be and their Ju/'Hoansi family, she collaborates with a group of invited artists to create the performance It's like a finger pointing a way to the moon.

Together, they delve into the movement within different unyielding languages. Guided by Bruce Lee’s allusion to an old Zen Buddhist wisdom in his seminal film Enter the Dragon, “Don’t concentrate on the finger or you will miss all that heavenly glory!”, she proposes to move with what we cannot fathom. To disappear in order to preserve the words that precede us, that never left us. To transform in order to keep what came before us.

Biographies

Moya Michael

Moya Michael is a dancer, performer, and choreographer born and raised in Johannesburg, South Africa. She has danced with the likes of Akram Khan, Gregory Maqoma, Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker (Rosas), Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and Damien Jalet (Eastman), Faustin Linyekula, David Hernandez, Mårten Spångberg, Keyon Gaskin and Jin Xing. Moya currently resides in Brussels, which is her base for creating her own work. Moya is interested in ‘performing the self’ and developing projects with other artists and artistic fields and has an ongoing commitment to process and discourse. She continues to evolve as a creative maker of live performances. It is in this manner that she has established a working relationship with KVS (The Royal Flemish Theatre in Brussels) as one of their artists. As a skilled performer, Moya is interested in all forms of expression and identity with the use of mixed mediums.

Špela Tušar

Špela Tušar is a Slovenian-born production designer and maker based in Brussels. Her creative journey began after studying fashion in Denmark and visual communication in Scotland. In 2014, she co-founded an NGO, gallery, and artist studio in Ljubljana, igniting her passion for creating captivating spaces and telling untold stories. Throughout her career, Špela has curated exhibitions and worked on scenography projects with acclaimed artists such as Moya Michael, Maaike Neuville, and Mathieu Charles. She has also collaborated on various films, including Here by Bas Devos. Working alongside award-winning production designer Pepijn Van Looy and as part of the art department team at Tanker, Špela has honed her skills and fulfilled her dream of being a versatile and imaginative designer. Her work demonstrates a unique blend of creativity, skill, and passion for bringing stories to life through visual storytelling.

Andrea Kränzlin

Andrea Kränzlin did a professional training as a tailor Haute Couture in Zurich. Afterwards she worked for fashion designer Ida Gut, did photo styling and worked for several theatre productions in Zurich. In 2007 she obtained her Master degree in Fashion Design at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp. She also studied Maroquinerie and is now manufacturing small leather goods and handbags in vegetable tanned leather. In 2020 she started a training as a Herbalist and trys to incorporate these new insights in her practice. Andrea Kränzlin also worked as Veronique Branquinho’s personal assistant and from 2005 till 2013 as a costume designer and manager of the studio for Troubleyn/Jan Fabre. During recent years she‘s doing more and more collaborative work with artists and other designers. Doing costume design for several Belgian and International theater- and dance productions like Zuidpool, Eastman, Moya Michael, Haider Al Timimi, Roland Gunst, Julian Hetzel, Bára Sigfúsdóttir, Thomas Ryckewaert, kabinet k, Jee- Ae Lim, NNT Groningen, A two dogs company and working for artists like Koen Theys, Jelena Juresna, Steve van den Bosch, Annaïk Lou Pitteloud and non-profit exhibition space LLS387. Aside costume design she works since 2022 as an assistant to Jan-Jan van Essche for his label and for O-Project/Japan. Andrea Kränzlin’s work is always based on a subtle mix of men’s and women’s clothing, which allows for an androgynous touch in her designs. Using a variety of strong structures and materials, as well as employing old techniques, details, patternmaking and craftsmanship are key aspects of her work.

Joachim Ben Yakoub

Joachim Ben Yakoub is a writer and teacher, sometimes also operating as curator and dramaturg, working on the border of different art schools and institutions. He spends most of his time in the Kitchen, a collective study and workspace in Brussels. He is affiliated to the MENARG and S:PAM research group of Ghent University, where he is conducting research on the aesthetics of revolt somewhere in between Tunisia and Belgium and is also lecturer at Sint-Lucas School of Arts Antwerp.

Victoire Karera Kampire

Victoire Karera K. is a Belgian and Rwandan filmmaker, sound designer, and co-founder of the nomadic collective .contrapunctum. She holds a master’s degree in New Media and Society from the VUB and graduated in audiovisual arts from the LUCA School of Arts. At the heart of her artistic quest is the notion of absence permeating her films at the border of documentary and fiction, with ghostly presences. She. has just started writing her next film “Ejo”, produced by Graphoui, and is part of a residency program funded by Africalia.

Simone Thierrée

Born in 1980 Simon Thierrée is a Brussels-based composer, violinist, pianist, and orchestra conductor. He has to his credit more than 40 musical creations for stage performances and movies since 1996, in various styles and for instrumentation ranging from solos to symphony orchestras. He is part and cofounder of the composer’s collective NONE. He was selected as a French resident artist in Lebanon in 2021 and in Tunisia in 2022 by the Institut Français. He received the prize Wallonie- Bruxelles of the Proquartetto International Composition Competition for his string quartet Fantaisie en huit miniatures.

Credits

CREATION Moya Michael IN COLLABORATION WITH Victoire Karera Kampire, Simon Thierrée, Joachim Ben Yakoub SCENOGRAPHY Špela Tušar COSTUME DESIGN Andrea Kränzlin VIDEO Victoire Karera Kampire SOUND DESIGN Simon Thierée LIGHT DESIGN & DIRECTION Ellie Bryce SOUND Patrick Van Neck DRAMATURGY Joachim Ben Yakoub STAGE MANAGER Caroline Wagner PRODUCTION MANAGER Lise Bruynseels INTERNATIONAL MANAGEMENT & DISTRIBUTION Cecilia Kuska SPECIAL THANKS TO !Amace, Be and family, Xoma and Xhao, Nashilongwe Shipwe, Jan de Villiers, Lindiwe Dlamini, Haymich Oliviern, Jennifer Hays, Loren Davis Fisher, Igor Shyshko, Ife Day and to all the beautiful people we met along the way PRODUCTION KVS COPRODUCTION WIELS, Perpodium, Bergen Kunsthall WITH THE SUPPORT OF Taxshelter Of The Belgian Federal Government Via BNPPFFF

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