For this dance creation they have invited 3 boxers and 7 dancers onto the stage. 1 composer, 1 video artist and 1 set designer are creating an auditory, visual and tactile space. Together with this team, the choreographers want to find a way to transform and transcend the reality of boxing as an ‘arena’ sport into the fiction of the stage. How can these two worlds influence each other. When does boxing become dancing? And vice versa? Augustijnen and Torres are intrigued by the contrast between the public image and the human figure that hides behind the facade. Instead of only staging the public image, they want to research the hidden and more intimate side. They want to reveal their vulnerability. Boxers and dancers are both in their own way “stage animals”, each with their own strategies, but aiming for a different goal.

When does boxing become dancing? And vice versa?

Hyper-individuality, exhibitionism, theatricality, vitality, solitude, vulnerability and public persona versus a more intimate, hidden side, plus the choreographic transformation of the movements of boxing and contemporary dance, these are the fundamental elements of this creation.

Augustijnen en Torres Guerrero’s choice of dance theatre is motivated by the belief in the vitality of dance and the expressive possibilities of its rough and physical energy. The cross-over between dance and theatre, with a focus on non-verbal communication, provides them with the space to create meaning in a dramatic and poetic way. It leaves the audience the opportunity to experience and interpret the performance in their own imagination.

The choreographers are starting out from the individuality of the boxers and dancers with whom they are working. They question the boxers/dancers continuously and guide them through the creation process, in which they discover and develop movement qualities based on the questions that were asked.

This new work celebrates the diversity of movement and dance languages and shows how they can respectfully stand next to each other or be transformed and mixed. The duo deliberately uses hybridity, cultural mixing and eclectism to generate new meanings out of inter-disciplinary cross-overs.