Dance: You've been framed

Eastman
Vlaemsch (chez moi)
director/choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui
performers Dorotea Saykaly, Helena Olmedo Duynslaeger, Christine Leboutte, Kazutomi ‘Tsuki’ Kozuki, Dayan Akhmedgaliev, Patrick Williams Seebacher, Nick Coutsier, Pau Aran Gimeno, Jonas Vandekerckhove, Nelson Parrish Earl, Darryl E Woods, Khalid Koujili El Yakoubi, Tister Ikomo, Maryna Kushchova
live music Floris De Rycker, Tomàs Maxé, Anne Rindahl Karlsen, Soetkin Baptist
sets Hans Op de Beeck • costumes Jan-Jan Van Essche
musical direction Floris De Rycker • sound Tsubasa Hori
Sadler's Wells, London • 18-20.Sep.25 ★★★

Belgian-Moroccan artist Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui takes a deep dive into his Flemish roots with this lively, multi-layered production that bursts with a wide range of ideas. It's visually dazzling and packed with metaphorical meaning as it mixes dance and music with spoken word, religion, language, art and culture. In other words, this is an exploration of identity, and it inventively reflects how difficult it is to isolate ethnicity and nationality in a world in which we all intermingle. It's also extremely singular, conveying ideas in ways that don't quite allow the audience to get inside them and feel them personally.

The stage is an astonishing mix of spaces and shapes, including elements from medieval Flanders, with sets, props and costumes that emphasise the region's perceived greyness. Musicians perform with ancient instruments, while De Rycker's vocal ensemble Ratas del Viejo Mundo harmonises in 16th century compositions. Intriguingly, other cultures continually seep into every aspect of the show, including Arabic musicality, American perspectives and sub-Saharan imperialistic influences, as well as some Far East touches. Everything plays out in lovely multi-lingual textures, although the words are more academic than resonant.

Full of fascinating touches, the complex choreography challenges the gifted performers to offer full-bodied expressions that shift from intimate movement to grand-scale tableaux. Much of this is laced with wit, as characters emerge and interact, playfully juggling elements involving gender and history. And rather a lot hinges around depictions of painters, as dancers repeatedly wield brushes, paint cans and picture frames in various scenes. Along the way, there are show-stopping moments, including a bus tour invasion of influencers gawking at the show. 

All of this plays out in such an intriguing flurry that the audience never has a clue what might pop up next. Key characters emerge to create through-lines in the narrative, including dancers, actors and singers, although what they mean and how they interact remains opaque. Indeed, many elements are head-scratchingly unclear, especially small bits of business taking place on the edges of the stage. Clearly it all has a profound meaning, and perhaps Cherekaoui's cheeky point is right there in the show's title, which is a deliberately misspelled archaic version of "Flemish": we should stop trying to put our cultural identity into a neat and tidy box.

For info, SADLER'S WELLS >

photos by Filip Van Roe • 18.Sep.25