Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui & Shantala Shivalingappa - Eastman

'Play' is a joint venture by two brilliant performers: Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, whom you all know, and the charming Shantala Shivalingappa. This Indian dancer has appeared at deSingel on two previous occasions with a performance of her very refined traditional kuchipudi dance. 'Play' is being created in the new Theatre Studio at deSingel and will then premiere in the Red Hall as a production for the large stage. In all his projects Sidi Larbi Chekaoui blends various styles and traditions into his own special dance idiom. The starting point in 'Play' is when a man and a woman meet and it reveals how the story that develops between them does so reluctantly and with constant interruptions. It is a game of role-playing, seduction, imitating one another and putting on masks: they use numerous ways to win one another over, explore one another's boundaries or simply to understand one another. Despite, or perhaps precisely because of, their different backgrounds and movements, the two dancers try to build a bridge that links them. All sorts of musicians, including Gabriele Miracle and Patrizia Bovi, enter into a dialogue with them. The latter will be remembered for her animated performance in 'Myth'.