EXIT

EXIT shows the meeting of four individuals who walk one collective path. In a big, impressive installation with a revolving wall and floating doors, they move in and through the space. They drive each other, walk, collide, climb, carry, balance and transform. They arrive and depart, meet and leave, appear and disappear. As human beings, we are always moving forward. But what if you’re always ‘on the road’? And what about the tension between the individual and the group? In their quest for independence, they need each other more than ever. They balance each other, but also bring each other out of balance. A flirt with risk…

EXIT is an exciting, impressive and physical circus and dance performance where movement, partner acrobatics and balance board merge. Choreographer Piet Van Dycke invites four circus artists, each specialized in a different discipline (bascule, straps, trapeze and acro dance). The theme also applies here: four individual disciplines in one collective language.

Piet won the BNG Bank Dance Prize 2021.
“Piet Van Dycke creates a mix of contemporary circus and dance. This results in playful performances that stand out because of the original use of space, objects and bodies.” – Jury report BNG Bank Dance Prize 2021

★★★★ – Ron Rijghard, NRC
…Solo, two and finally four, they perform astonishing, dangerous-looking acrobatics. The Flemish choreographer Piet Van Dycke asked four dancers with a circus background for this performance. Their double talent makes Exit to an exciting hour of physical power.

★★★★ – Annette Embrechts, Volkskrant
Exit is a playful and sophisticated combination of acrobatics, dance, slapstick and balance-art. The work of the young choreographer Piet Van Dycke excels through an organic mix of light-footedness and heaviness.

★★★★ – Filip Tielens, De Standaard
The piece cleverly builds up to an impressive apotheosis (…) the performers hoist themselves into the air, slide off the wall
and the four of them look for a balance that they eventually find. Impressive (…) the sensation of the weekend.

Eric Nederkoorn, Dagblad van het noorden
The breathtaking performance blows you away. It is a combination of dance and circus, with four loners who, after initial resistance, need each other to find balance in their lives.

Credits
Concept & choreography: Piet Van Dycke
Performers: Christopher Mc Auley, Luuk Brantjes, Samuel Rhyner, Will Blenkin
Music: Bastiaan van Vuuren/Bastian Benjamin
Dramaturgy: Marie Peeters
Installation: Arjan Kruidhof, Arjen Schoneveld
Scenographic support: Menno Boerdam
Light design: Edwin van Steenbergen
Research: Bavo De Smedt, Marius Cavin, Raff Pringuet
Production: Circumstances
Coproduction: Festival Circolo, DansBrabant, Theater op de Markt-Dommelhof, HET LAB Hasselt, Miramiro, Cirklabo and Circ’uit.
With the support of: PLAN, Stad Leuven en Grensverleggers/deBUREN (een regeling ter ondersteuning van culturele samenwerkingen tussen partijen in Vlaanderen, de Provincie Noord-Brabant, de Provincie Limburg en de Provincie Zeeland)

Piet van Dycke will develop his choreographic signature in the coming years at PLAN – a development platform in Brabant (NL).
He will research ‘transformation’: the transformation of space (EXIT – 2022) and the transformation of the body (GLORIOUS BODIES – 2023).
He won the Jacques de Leeuw prize in 2018, was chosen as ‘most promising maker’ by reviewers Wendy Lubberding and Annette Embrechts in 2019.