Choreomania

We are pleased to invite you for a final evening of public performances, where five of our artist-in-residence will unveil their newly developed works.

The performances will unfold across multiple buildings within Hembrugterrein - a former military base and weapon factory, where our residents have been living and working for the past two months. These pieces, shaped by the possibilities of the theme Choreomania – Bodily Excess, Collective Unrest, are site-specific creations that weave together personal and collective experiences, offering a powerful reflection of their time in the residency.

Choreomania, deemed ‘the dancing plague’ by those in positions of medical-, religious-, and/or social power, describes instances of collective mass eruptions that occurred primarily between the 14th and 17th century. These ‘dance manias’ are conventionally portrayed as unregulated frenzied gatherings wherein people participated until complete exhaustion. 

Throughout this programme, we centred choreomania as a collective response to social crises that finds…