Alain Platel, Les Ballets C de la B

The unclassifiable Alain Platel returns with nine dancers from his critically acclaimed contemporary ensemble les ballets C de la B, for the dark and moving nicht schlafen. Inspired by the music of Gustav Mahler and the time the composer lived in, Platel draws parallels between the music and the troubled
early years of the 20th century in Europe.

Platel’s regular collaborator, Steven Prengels, uses African polyphonic chants, cowbells and the sounds of sleeping animals to create a surprising soundscape, and visual artist Berlinde De Bruyckere sculpts the startling image of the bodies of dead horses, piled up in a jumbled heap. This is a dance of life and death.