A face that turns into a nape, legs that multiply, identities fading behind a mask. Manual Focus is the first and iconic creation by Mette Ingvartsen: three female bodies merge into a twelve-legged organism, suspended between animal, human, and monstrous creature. What unsettles is not the “monster” itself, but the unstable tension between naked and masked, artificial and real, masculine and feminine. A dance that disorients the gaze and forces us to reconsider the body we think we know.
Mette Ingvartsen Manual Focus
art
FAROUT
The body you thought you knew no longer exists.
Bio
Mette Ingvartsen (Denmark) is one of the most relevant choreographers and dancers on the international scene. A graduate of P.A.R.T.S. in 2004, she has developed a choreographic research that intertwines dance, visual arts, technology, and theory. From early works such as Manual Focus (2003), to come (2005), and GIANT CITY (2009), to the series The Artificial Nature and The Red Pieces, her work explores the relationship between body, perception, and politics, addressing themes such as nudity, sexuality, the hybridization of human and nature, and collective transformations. Her creations have been presented at major festivals and theatres across Europe, the United States, Canada, Asia, and Australia. Ingvartsen collaborates regularly with artists such as Xavier Le Roy, Boris Charmatz, and Bojana Cvejić, and is also a teacher and researcher: in 2021, she earned a PhD in Choreography at the Stockholm University of the Arts / Lund University.
Credits
Concept: Mette Ingvartsen
Creation: Manon Santkin, Kajsa Sandström, Mette Ingvartsen
Performance: Manon Santkin, Kajsa Sandström, Kaya Kolodziejczyk
Original production: P.A.R.T.S.
With the support of: The Flemish Authorities, The Flemish Community Commission (VGC)
Thanks to: Bojana Cvejić, Peter Lenaerts
- Duration 25'
- Doors opening at Doors open 15 minutes before the event begins
- Recommended age: 12+
- Accessible to deaf and hard-of-hearing audiences