Damien Jalet / Grand Théâtre de Genève Ballet

We are familiar with choreographer Damien Jalet from his close collaborations with Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui. Now he is coming to DE SINGEL with his own work for the first time. In the spectacular double bill Skid / THR(O)UGH, dancers balance on the edge of danger in Jim Hodges’ dazzling scenography. Jalet drew inspiration from the Japanese ritual of Onbashira, in which men slide down steep rock faces on tree trunks.

The extreme, even lethal danger embodied in this ritual came unexpectedly close when Jalet witnessed the terrorist attacks in Paris’ Rue de

Charonne on 13 November 2015. The fears and questions sparked by this experience were incorporated into THR(O)UGH. In the rotating

tunnel on stage, immobility becomes a synonym for death. In Skid the dancers must somehow ground themselves again on a platform that is tilted 34 degrees. They surrender themselves and resist, appear and disappear, stand up again and let themselves fall. Jalet’s diptych is thus also an ode to mutual trust, because it is only together that the dancers remain standing.