Culture beat – January 3

A French-language theatre run, energetic dance and a rising jazz star all kick off the New Year.


With almost 25 years of experience, the Antwerp collective tg Stan has a honed repertoire that extends to English and French productions as well as Dutch. After months of touring abroad they return to Belgium with a trio of French-language works (subtitled in Dutch) at KVS and Théâtre National as part of the Toernee General festival. First up is a Belgian premiere of the French-language adaptation of Le Chemin solitaire at KVS from January 8 to 13. The 1904 work by Arthur Schnitzler first appeared in Dutch (De Eenzame weg) in 2007. Centred on the theme of family, it explores blood ties, loss, age, separation and paternity. The collective, which focuses on the actor (it shuns directors) and was founded on an anti-dogma stance, then continues its run with Les Estivants by Maxim Gorky (January 16 to 19), a tale of middle-class life in Russia during the turbulent early 20th century, also at KVS. It then moves to the Théâtre National with Les Antigones, in which the company confronts two versions of the famous Greek myth by Cocteau and Anouilh (January 22 to 26).

Another well-established Belgian artist is choreographer Thierry Smits and his company, Thor, who are back on stage with new work Clear Tears/Troubled Waters in the lofty Halles de Schaerbeek from January 8 to 16 before touring the country and Europe. Smits has formed a new troupe of seven young dancers, accompanied by three accomplished musicians (Tuxedomoon duo Steven Brown and Blaine L Reininger plus contemporary musician Maxime Bodson) for his latest creation. An article in Le Monde was the inspiration for Smits’ interpretation of a disappearing world. It mooted the idea that the current economic crisis has also triggered a moral and social breakdown that demands a change in attitude and a new solidarity. The performance explores the nostalgia of our times and shares the instant need for hope in an elaborate and very physical choreography.

Launching a tour across Brussels and Wallonia from January 4 is rising Belgian jazz star Igor Gehenot along with double-bassist Sam Gerstmans and drummer Teun Verbruggen (pictured below  (c) Kristel Merckx). The prodigious 23-year-old pianist will be in Brussels’ Jazz Station on January 9 and at Sounds (the trio’s resident club) on January 8 and 22. The tour follows Gehenot’s first album of original compositions, Road Story, released last May, which is continuing to receive accolades as one of the year’s best jazz albums.

As Ireland takes over the EU presidency for the next six months, a celebratory concert of Irish music marks the occasion at Flagey on January 8. The Gloaming is a collective of individual talents (vocal, piano, guitar and fiddle) who share a musical aesthetic that explores traditional and new music.

A special release of Miguel Gomes’s award-winning latest film, Tabu, is programmed at Cinéma Nova from January 10 to February 24. After being named best film at the Ghent Film Festival in October and being recognised at the Berlinale 2012, the Nova team is showcasing both Tabu (pictured below), a subtle, elegant and beautiful film set in Mozambique and Lisbon, and its Portuguese director. It has added English and French subtitles to the black-and-white, quasi-silent film and accompanied it by a full retrospective of Gomes’s work. Three concerts by musicians connected to Gomes and his films plus the presence of the director himself on January 10 and 11 complete the programme.