WArd/waRD | Ann Van den Broek

Jumping rope, inventing dance moves in front of the mirror, building your own world out of Lego or blocks. In the chaos of the present, Play takes you back to your inner child. The performance explores fantasy as a refuge, as a necessity, as a way to get a grip on what is bigger than us.

With Play, choreographer Ann Van den Broek blows the dust off her Barbies. She explores play as a necessity of life, as a way to escape from, or rather confront, what is troubling. Thus, Play is not a nostalgic longing for a lost childhood, but a sharp, physical search for the tension between imagination and reality. Playing as resistance, as comfort, as a form of expression for the unspeakable.

Play is an ode to imagination and an invitation to dare to play again.

The performance is raw, poetic and direct. With dance, performance, live video, a rugged composition and intense physical language, the performers constantly move between the inner and outer worlds. They build, fall, play and climb – where imagination and reality meet and collide.