Biography
Christine De Smedt, Liza Baliasnaja and Theo Livesey met in P.A.R.T.S. in 2013. In 2020 they started working together on a research project into ‘Low Intensity Violence’ and are currently working towards a performance entitled The Third Room, which will premiere in deSingel in December 2022.
Liza Baliasnaja is a choreographer and performer based in Brussels. In 2016 she completed the Performing Arts Research and Training Studios (P.A.R.T.S) program in Brussels and shortly after started studying philosophy at the University of KU Leuven. Liza positions herself in the field through multiple roles – choreographing, performing, artistic assistance, mentoring and teaching.
Theo Livesey, (°1995), is a performer and maker who works in dance, theater and the written word. Since graduating from P.A.R.T.S. in 2016, he works closely with Gisèle Vienne as a performer and assistant in several works. He constructs his own work on stage and on the page, and engages in various collaborative work processes.
The artistic work of Christine De Smedt (1963°-B- lives in Brussels) is situated between dancing/performing, choreographing, coordinating, organizing and curating artistic projects. As a member of the company les ballets C. de la B. (Ghent, Belgium) from 1991 to 2012, she created many of her own works, and also collaborated with, among others, M. Stuart/Damaged Goods, E.Salamon, M Spångberg, M. Edvardsen, P. Gehmacher, X. Le Roy, V. Miller, J. Ritsema, M. Van Imschoot. To date, she continues to be involved as a faculty member and mentor at P.A.R.T.S. and she regularly guides artists outside the school context.
In residentie The Third Room
01.01.2023 – 01.01.2023
I think it says a lot about you, that when the question is about responsibility, the next topic that’s brought up is guilt. I find that interesting.I thought you were talking about guilt? I was talking about duty.I heard you say guilt.I said guilt after you said guilt.You did say guilt!I said guilt, but I was not thinking about guilt.Ok. Distinction made. You said it without thinking about it. That’s quite impressive.
Life in the contemporary Western world is permeated with casual violence, so small that we hardly notice it. Microaggressions disguised in friendly language, scars of a violent history in public spaces, tug-of-war to gain the upper hand in a conversation… It is violence that we have experienced and sometimes cause ourselves. It’s subtle, but builds up and can cause long-term damage.
The Third Room is a performance in which Christine De Smedt, Liza Baliasnaja and Theo Livesey investigate what they call ‘violence with low intensity’. Together they encompass the lines of a conversation. How can you use language as a means of imagination and dominance? In the situations created, the performers swing back and forth between the positions of perpetrator, witness and victim. They pierce the fiction of freedom and peaceful coexistence that divides part of the Western social ideal.