RUSH

RUSH is a celebration of what a body on stage is capable of: thinking and telling stories, transforming the world through imagination – and capturing the pure pleasure of performing itself. In this solo, Manon Santkin dances her way through the multitude of choreographic material she embodied within the work of Mette Ingvartsen. From this material, RUSH creates a new world – one in which language and body need each other in order to imagine. Words alone are not enough; they call for the materiality of flesh, for physical presence, and for humor.

Imagination becomes Santkin’s main instrument: where fellow dancers, objects, or installations once were, Santkin now makes their absence tangible. The solo body evokes what is no longer (or not) there. RUSH does not simply look back, but creates in the present moment. Santkin’s body communicates through what it is, through what it says, and through what it imagines. Her nudity and direct address emphasize the body as a physical presence that is at once personal and political.

In this way, a double imaginative power emerges: the body that transforms before your eyes and the body that raises questions about how we would like to see the world. A new chronology of existing work positions the dancer as both receiver and sender of diverse, clashing, and unexpected affects. In this way, Santkin offers a tribute to what it means to be a performer while organically reactivating scores from 20 years of collaboration. Manual Focus, to come, 7 Pleasures, and the Artificial Nature Project do not become an archive in RUSH, but a living, vibrant fabric.

Premiere: February 1st 2024, STUK – Leuven (BE)

Texts & interviews

Press Quotes RUSH
RUSH or 20 years of work