For the project C-TAKT+, C-TAKT is partnering with six different cultural houses in the area. C-TAKT+ supports artists who work transdisciplinarily and seeks new presentation formats to spread this kind of work more widely. Six culture houses make a commitment to include some C-TAKT projects in their programme. Thus, C-TAKT+ forms a network of presentation venues with the main objective of broadening support for contemporary performing arts. It is a breakthrough for a diverse cultural offering and a search for new audiences.

The six cultural houses that are taking part in this adventure are: CC MUZE (Heusden-Zolder), CC Palethe (Pelt), de Bogaard (Sint-Truiden), CC de Werft (Geel), CCHA (Hasselt) and C-mine (Genk). You can find the C-TAKT+ programme for autumn 2023 in this brochure. Tickets can be bought on the respective website of the cultural house where the performance will take place.

Calendar autumn 2023

The boy in the belfry – Jan Verheyen
13 August 2023 – 16.15 – de Bogaard, Sint-Truiden

Toilet tango – Rodrigo Pardo
23 September 2023 – every 10 min at 11.00, 11.30, 13.00 & 14.00 – de Bogaard, Sint-Truiden

Please let me (not) be misunderstood – Geert Belpaeme
23 September 2023 – 20.15 – C-mine, Genk

RrrrRRrrr – Wannes Deneer & Yinka Kuitenbrouwer
17 & 18 October 2023 – 20.15 – C-mine, Genk

Blueberries leave bruises on the skin – Astrid De Haes & Mona Thijs
19 October 2023 – 20.15 – CC MUZE, Heusden-Zolder

A deluded state of mind (workshop) – Liesbet Hermans
19 & 21 October 2023 – 10.00 – C-mine, Genk

The boy in the belfry – Jan Verheyen
22 October 2023 – 14.00 – CC Palethe, Pelt

FOON – dOFt
13 & 14 November 2023 – school performance – C-mine, Genk

Elisabeth gets her way – Jan Martens
16 November 2023 – 20:15 – de Werft, Geel

Korrol – Grensgeval
19 November 2023 – 14.00 – C-mine
20 & 21 November 2023 – school performance – C-mine, Genk

Programme

The boy in the belfry – Jan Verheyen

13 August 2023 – 16.15
the Bogaard, Sint-Truiden
Info & tickets: debogaard.be

22 October 2023 – 14.00
CC Palethe, Pelt
Info & tickets: palethe.be

Jan Verheyen is city carillonneur of Hasselt and Neerpelt and inspirer of Bells Lab. Through this, he develops innovative projects with bells. Bells Lab addresses different audiences, plays music in various genres and is active in various fields: from theatre and dance to education and total spectacle. He also does educational projects for schools and gives workshops with bells and bells.

In The Boy in the Belfry, a boy becomes possessed by bells and views the world from his tower perspective. A hefty dose of fantasy, laced with trivia from carillon history. And, of course, with carillon music – sometimes with an angle off!

Toilet Tango – Rodrigo Pardo

23 September 2023 – every 10 min at 11.00, 11.30, 13.00 & 14.00
the Bogaard, Sint-Truiden
Info & tickets: debogaard.be

Argentine choreographer/performer and video artist, Rodrigo Pardo graduated as MA in Performing Arts from Dasarts (Amsterdam/NL 2005-08) Contemporary Dancer, BA from Teatro General San Martín (Buenos Aires/AR 1995-97) and Actor, BA from Bahia Blanca Theatre Academy (Bahía Blanca/AR 1988-91)

His artistic work ranges from dance pieces, video and music to site-specific projects using mixed media. This interdisciplinary practice is characterised by a special relationship with urban spaces, musical identity and the insertion of constructed fiction into everyday life as a way of opening doors to awareness about how we perceive reality.

Be bowled over by the short but powerful performance of Toilet Tango! A dance performance in the smallest room…? Madness and beauty trump this dance performance!

Please (don’t) let me be misunderstood – Geert Belpaeme

23 September 2023 – 20.15
C-mine, Genk
Info & tickets: c-mine.be

Geert Belpaeme is a theatre maker, performer and teacher/researcher at KASK School of Arts Ghent. He creates performances between theatre, circus, performance, dance and the philosophical experiment. Playfulness, abstraction and uninhibited imagination are the dominant threads running through his oeuvre, performed in an artistic language sometimes reminiscent of a minimalist form of clownery.

Besides l’hommmm, his collective with Mats Van Herreweghe, Belpaeme also founded the company the poles in 2016, together with Bosse Provoost, Kobe Chielens and Lieselotte De Keyzer. In the same year, he also received the Roel Verniers Prize for his solo performance First.

Since the early sixties when first Nina Simone and then The Animals asked us for understanding for their misbehaviour with ‘Please don’t let me be misunderstood’, the pertinent question/ entreaty has not lost its relevance. ‘Please (don’t) let me be (mis)understood’ by Geert Belpaeme became a physical performance in which human bodies step out of their banks to play non-human relationships as well. It is playful, abstract and with uninhibited imagination. And all that with the wink of a clown who, before you know it, holds up a rather pointed mirror to you.

RrrrRRrrr – Wannes Deneer & Yinka Kuitenbrouwer

17 & 18 October 2023 – 20.15
C-mine, Genk
Info & tickets: c-mine.be

In this vibrating performance, writer Yinka Kuitenbrouwer and sound artist Wannes Deneer delve deeper into our relationship with the things that surround us. And that is why the duo perform in spaces where things are made or repaired.

RrrRrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. Everything is in motion: atoms, a sculptor’s hammer, wifi waves.

And those vibrations bring forth new things, be it the universe, a knitting project, a child or an internet connection.

Text and acting: Yinka Kuitenbrouwer // Sound and acting: Wannes Deneer // Dramaturgy: Marie Peeters // Acting advice: Suze Millius // Music advice: Toon Callier // Production: Matter of Sound // Co-producers: Concertgebouw Brugge, C-takt // With support from Vincent Company, C O R S O, De Grote Post and the Flemish Community

Blueberries leave bruises on the skin – Astrid De Haes & Mona Thijs

19 October 2023 – 20.15
CC MUZE, Heusden-Zolder
Info & tickets: muze.be

Astrid De Haes started dancing when she was six and has had a keen interest in movement and the body ever since. She studied Autonomous Design at the School of Arts in Ghent. As a master’s thesis, she conducted preliminary research for her performance Untitled 1. This creation with four dancers and five musicians, and music by Abel Ghekiere, was selected for edition 2021 of Antwerp’s new-makers festival Love at first Sight. Astrid also created the dance solo After All with and for Pierre Bastin in 2021, which was shown at mobile open-air theatre De Carrousel in Antwerp.

Mona Thijs earned a master’s degree in Word Art and an educational master’s degree in Drama from the Royal Conservatory of Antwerp. Her short stories have appeared in the literary magazine DW B and columns in De Standaard and Klasse. Under the wings of theatre workshop HETGEVOLG in Turnhout, she co-directed a music-theatre project for foreign-language newcomers together with musician Elias Durnez. She also realised Playlist van de pluk, a multilingual radio series in which she worked with the music, stories and languages of seasonal workers in the Haspengouw fruit harvest. Currently, Mona is working on her debut novel.

In the trilingual (Dutch, English, French) dance-theatre performance ‘Blueberries leave bruises on the skin’, three actors ask themselves: in what ways can we immortalise ourselves? And whence comes the urge to do so? In an infinite-looking white space, they search for ways to be remembered, from heroic to small, from kitsch to painfully honest. Silently the questions arise: why is this immortalisation so important? Isn’t living an sich enough? And can you immortalise yourself at all if you don’t even know who you are now?

‘Blueberries leave bruises on the skin’ is a colourful collection of attempts to find and transcend yourself, a celebration of human hubris, an ode to life, a party where no one wants to be the first to leave, an increasingly shaky interplay of three characters in search of themselves.

Concept and direction: Astrid De Haes & Mona Thijs // Play: Melody Van Gompel, Anna Tierney & Kaat De Bakker // Sound design: Orlan Ghekiere // Costume design: Eli Verkeyn // Lighting design: Dominique Pollet // Dramaturgy: Jenne Van Daele // Educational package: Gideon Hakker & Mona Thijs // Co-producers: the Flemish government, ECRU, deSingel // Supported by: Arts Centre Buda, Kultuurfaktorij Monty, Destelheide Hanenbos, C-TAKT, Zuidpool, Passerelle vzw, Per Podium & Klein Verzet

a deluded state of mind (workshop) – Liesbet Hermans

19 & 21 October 2023 – 10.00
C-mine, Genk
Info & registration: c-mine.be

You know that feeling when your head goes too fast and your body goes too slow? Can’t shut the mouth of your inner critic sometimes? Do your thoughts never give you a second’s peace?

Anyone who immediately heaved three sighs of relief might have the ideal profile for Liesbet Hermans’ research workshop as part of a new performance. Fascinated by all the thoughts that occupy us, in ‘A deluded state of mind’ she explores the relationship between our bodies and our minds: what judgements, expectations and fears are hidden inside us, and are they unique or similar?

The actual performance will premiere in Genk on 13 April.

FOON – dOFt

13 & 14 November 2023 – 13.30, 10.00 & 13.30 (school performance)
C-mine, Genk
Info & tickets: c-mine.be

28 March 2024 – 1.30 pm (school performance)
CC MUZE, Heusden-Zolder
Info & tickets: muze.be

Based on artistic research, dOFt creates surprising, challenging and impactful dance theatre performances for young audiences. We are known for our tight execution, poetic images and acrobatic, detailed movement language. Central to our work is the dialogue between movement, text, music and scenography and the original narrative power that emerges from this interaction. Our choreographic theatre language is contemporary, careful and mathematical in form, but placed in a context with elements recognisable to all. As a result, we know how to provide our young audience with an entrance to experience our work associatively and personally. Because of our playful outlook and continuous focus on social themes, our productions are experienced as a breath of fresh air on the (youth) theatre circuit.

“Can I connect you?”

More than 50 years ago, telephonists connected callers at cross purposes. Crackling conversations were established through an intricate system of cables. According to strict telephone etiquette, the switch girls themselves were not allowed to laugh or talk to each other. It was even forbidden to whisper and they were certainly not allowed to listen in on telephone conversations. While they interacted with the world, mutual communication was strictly forbidden. This exciting friction is the starting point for the new dOFt performance.

‘FOON’ will be a dynamic, surprising and playful dance-theatre performance where text, movement, music, acrobatics and installation work flow together. Choreographer Piet Van Dycke & theatre maker Jonas Vermeulen, together with three physical actors, create a poetic and visual experience for everyone aged 6 and up about the (r)evolution from I-she to we. Do we still dare to make room for each other in a life full of chaos?

Dance, acting: Jotka Bauwens, Michèle Even, Sarah Vingerhoets // Choreography: Piet Van Dycke // Text, direction: Jonas Vermeulen // Scenography: Erki De Vries // Scenographic support: Arjan Kruidhof, Arjen Schoneveld & Sibran Sampers // Costume: Elise Goedgezelschap // Music design: Koen Brouwers & Jonas Vermeulen // Dramaturgy: Marie Peeters // Lighting design: Raf Wouters // Artistic production management: Sam Cunningham // Technology coordination: Daan tytgat // Technology: Casper Van Overschee, Maarten Brants & Anton Spiessens // Co-production: HET LAB Hasselt, C-TAKT, 30CC, Perpodium // With support from: Sabam For Culture, the Flemish Government // With thanks to: the Warande, C-mine, De Ruimte, Destelheide, Warande

Elisabeth gets her way – Jan Martens

16 november 2023 – 20.15
de Werft, Geel
Info & tickets: dewerft.be

Jan Martens (°1984, Belgium) studied at the Fontys Dance Academy in Tilburg and studied Dance at the Artesis Royal Conservatory in Antwerp, where he graduated in 2006. Martens’ work is fuelled by the conviction that every body can communicate, and actually has something to tell. With each new performance, he seeks to redraw the relationship between audience and performer. His debut I CAN RIDE A HORSE WHILST JUGGLING SO MARRY ME in 2010 was quickly followed by several solos, duets and 10 group pieces.

In Elisabeth gets her way, internationally lauded Jan Martens pays a danced tribute to Polish harpsichordist Elisabeth Chojnacka (1939-2017), an exceptionally talented and passionate musician who was partly responsible for the revival of harpsichord music in the mid-20th century.

In this compelling solo, Martens revives her incredible temperament and immerses us in her rich oeuvre. The soundtrack goes wide: with works by Nyman over Montague to Ligeti, all in a performance by Chojnacka. Jan Martens’ ambition is to stay close to the sometimes complex scores while dancing. Martens plays his body like Chojnacka did with the harpsichord. Using various styles of movement, Martens sketches a unique and intimate portrait of Chojnacka’s life.

Choreography and dance: Jan Martens// Sound engineer documentary: Yanna Soentjens // Lighting design: Elke Verachtert // Costume design: Cédric Charlier // Video and music: full list of video clips (© Archives INA) and music tracks: www.grip. house // Video editing: Sabine Groenewegen // Outside eye: Marc Vanrunxt, Anne-Lise Brevers and Rudi Meulemans // Technical direction: Michel Spang/Elke Verachtert // Production: GRIP // International spread: A Propic – Line Rousseau and Marion Gauvent // Co-production: DE SINGEL (Antwerp, BE), Les Hivernales – CDCN d’Avignon (FR), Julidans (Amsterdam, NL), C-TAKT (Limburg, BE) and Perpodium (BE) // With the financial support of: the Flemish Government, the Taxshelter of the Belgian Federal Government and Cronos Invest // With thanks to: INA – l’Institut National de l’Audiovisuel, Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo sous la Présidence de S.A.R. la Princesse de Hanovre -Direction: Jean-Christophe Maillot, Graciane Finzi, Régis Mitonneau, Anne Montaron, Emmanuelle Tat, François-Bernard Mâche, Zygmunt Krauze, Stephen Montague, Raphaël de Gubernatis, Claire Verlet, Ty Boomershine, Joris van Oosterwijk, Liselotte Sels and Kinga Jaczewska

Korrol – grensgeval

19 november 2023 – 14.00
20 & 21 november 2023 – 10.00 & 13.30 (school performance)
C-mine, Genk
Info & tickets: c-mine.be

Grensgeval creates performances with and/or for children and young people. The company takes children’s fantasy and intuition as a starting point to explore adult themes. In its productions, Grensgeval places those themes in a new, deliberately naive, logic, mixed with a dose of anarchy and punk.

Her productions are sensory: theatre that not only stimulates visually, but also does so with smells, sounds, touch or tastes, creating a world of its own imagination.

A vibrant circus sound theatre where the audience is on top! With drumming blocks, a petrified acrobat and dancing concrete.

In KORROL, an acrobatic architect composes space with kilos of concrete. Jonas builds towers, the towers turn into a city, a desolate plain, a human being. But every time he tries to lay the last brick, his work turns out to be unfinished. Jonas balances on tottering towers, leaps on his hands from stone to stone. But no matter what he tries: everything remains so stiff and still. Until he puts on the concrete: spinning on leaden shoes he orchestrates a small ballet, in a duet with a massive ball he skims past his audience. His whole body he (re)builds. When Jonas puts his concrete head in the hands of the audience, they become co-carriers of his creation. In a world of travelling and tangible sound, they rebuild the world together.