Press Quotes Skatepark

 

It is not an easy exercise, bringing skating into the theatre. Makers quickly force such a subculture into something too polished, causing it to lose its soul. Choreographer Mette Ingvartsen deftly avoids that risk. Skatepark feels very authentic, at no point do you wonder who the skaters and who the three professional dancers are. … Ingvartsen lets the fun and rebellion of skate culture explode in the theatre auditorium. This energy bomb proves it: punx not dead! 

– Charlotte De Somviele (De Standaard)

 

Danish choreographer Mette Ingvartsen’s latest performance breathes anarchy and freedom. Skateboarders, line-skaters, dancers and musicians of all ages occupy the space with great respect for each other. Even when grim clowning casts a dark light on the skate ramp, togetherness remains intact. Skatepark is a peerless performance with a hopeful message. Ingvartsen’s oeuvre takes a surprising new direction and in this work, too, the body is ‘political’.

– Moos van den Broek (Theaterkrant.nl)

 

Ingvartsen is a master of the unobtrusive mise-en-scène that relies heavily on the performers’ sensitivity. Always new images emerge organically, and always the performance maintains a tension that is astonishingly light, and open. And so an organised freedom emerges, where giving each other space is a necessity and which doesn’t create restrictions but pleasure.

– Han van Wieringen (De Groene Amsterdammer)

 

Skatepark is a beautiful, exciting and accessible performance.

– Joris Henquet (de Volkskrant)

 

Mette Ingvartsen has succeeded in creating a setting in which these young artists can truly express themselves, without instrumentalising either their presence or their virtuosity.

– Belinda Mathieu (Sceneweb.fr)

 

The effect is striking, with these rituals of sliding, these ephemeral trances, these bodies beyond gravity. Skatepark fascinates with its quasi-documentary depiction of a possible community.

– Philippe Noisette (Les Inrockuptibles)

 

Again and again, there are attempts to bring “high culture” and “popular culture” together, to bring music or practices of pop culture onto the stage. Rarely has this succeeded as magnificently as in Mette Ingvartsen’s cleverly staged performance Skatepark.

– Edith Wolf Perez (Tanz.at)

 

Skatepark is a wonderful piece about dance.

– Melanie Suchy (Tanz)