October 19, 2004 -

OTTAWA -- Belgium’s acclaimed and controversial Ultima Vez heats up the 2004-2005 Dance season with its provocative and visually stunning production of Blush in the Theatre of the NAC on Wednesday November 3, 2004 at 20:30.

Created and directed by Ultima Vez Artistic Director Wim Vandekeybus, Blush is immensely sexy, confrontational, and intensely physical -- an avalanche of images. Centred on the restless, unpredictable, powerful, fragile human body, and obsessed with love in all its states – lust, temptation, exhilaration, and shame -- Blush is performed to a percussive rock score by American singer/songwriter David Eugene Edwards. Vandekeybus’s choreography pushes the international cast of 10 performers (actors as well as dancers, including Vandekeybus himself) and technology into a total osmosis of dance, theatre, large-scale film sequences, text, and music. Blush is an explosion of visual imagery and sound that seethes with energy, danger, emotion, and sensuality.

Please be advised: this production contains nudity, inappropriate use of fruit, and scenes which some may find offensive; Blush is not suitable for children.

A woman makes love to a man as he snores. An immense wall of bags is constructed, then brutally crushes two dancers. In an inventive and breathtaking moment of interaction between film and live performance, dancers dive from the stage into the screen, seamlessly reappearing on film as nymphs in an underwater netherworld. Performers are also transformed into wild animals, lost Eurydices, and raging furies. Blush – Wim Vandekeybus’s fifteenth production for Ultima Vez -- also features text written by Peter Verhelst in collaboration with the performers. Richly poetic, the text draws inspiration from Charles Laughton’s 1955 film The Night of the Hunter, as well as from Ovid’s tale of Orpheus rescuing Eurydice from the underworld.

“A magnificent performance about love … explodes with energy. The result is remarkable. One knows straightaway that one is in a ‘Vandekeybus’, with the violence and the poetry, the drive and the tenderness, delivered in a visual and bodily shock.”

“Blush is about boys and girls, loving, streetfighting,… raw sex, gritty humour and magical imagery.”

“Lively and strong, sensual and explosive, wild and elegant.”

“The performers go to extremes of emotion and physical strength, giving the show a powerful and disturbing energy.”

Ultima Vez, based in Antwerp, is one of Europe’s leading dance theatre companies. The company is led by Wim Vandekeybus, an acclaimed director, choreographer, actor, and photographer. After working for two years with Jan Fabre, he created his own working structure, Ultima Vez, a company of a dozen young artists and actors, and several artistic, technical and administrative collaborators.

Ultima Vez performs Blush in the Theatre of the National Arts Centre on Wednesday, November 3, 2004 at 20:30. Tickets are $41, $38 and $29, and $21.50, $20 and $15.50 for students (upon presentation of a valid student ID card). Tickets are available at the NAC Box Office (in person) and through Ticketmaster (with surcharges) at (613) 755-1111; Ticketmaster may also be accessed through the NAC’s web-site at www.nac-cna.ca. Last-minute tickets (subject to availability) for full-time students are $9.50 at the Live Rush Centre in the NAC Foyer after 18:00 on the day of performance only, upon presentation of a valid ‘Live Rush’ card. Groups of 20+ save up to 20% on NAC Music, Theatre and Dance performances. To book call 947-7000 ext: 384 or email grp@nac-cna.ca

Photos for all dance events can be viewed and downloaded at: www.nac-cna.ca/media/

Information:
Gerald Morris
Marketing and Media Relations, NAC Dance Department
(613) 947-7000, ext. 249
gmorris@nac-cna.ca

WIM VANDEKEYBUS and ULTIMA VEZ
Wim Vandekeybus is a director, choreographer, actor, and photographer. After working for two years with Jan Fabre, he created his own working structure, Ultima Vez, a company of a dozen young artists and actors, and several artistic, technical and administrative collaborators.

In 1985 and 1986, he continued his personal research by giving a series of workshops in Europe while preparing, with Octavio Iturbe, his first performance What the Body Does Not Remember, which premiered in 1987 and was soon being shown on international stages. In 1988, Wim Vandekeybus received the Bessie Award in New York for this production. In 1989, after a residency at the Centre National de Danse Contemporaine d'Angers, he created the Bessie Award-winning Les porteuses de mauvaises nouvelles, whilst continuing with international tours and working with Thierry De Mey on The Weight of a Hand (1990). Walter Verdin, Octavio Iturbe and Wim Vandekeybus directed Roseland, a video that places the choreographic works of Wim Vandekeybus in an abandoned Brussels cinema. This video was awarded with the "Dance Screen Award 1991" (IMZ, Frankfurt) and the "Prague d'Or".

In 1991, a new creation, Immer das Selbe gelogen, was first performed during the SommerSZENE festival, Salzburg, followed by a world tour. From this production onwards, the medium of film took an important place in Vandekeybus' work. In 1992, Wim Vandekeybus and Walter Verdin directed La Mentira, a video-film based on Immer das Selbe gelogen. In 1993, Wim Vandekeybus and his company started working on Her Body Doesn't Fit Her Soul; part of this production is the projection of the short film Elba and Federico, which Vandekeybus directed. The film received the "Special Prize of the Jury" at the International Film Festival of Brussels. In 1993, Wim Vandekeybus and Ultima Vez became artist-in-residence at the Royal Flemish Theater.

In 1994, Mountains Made of Barking premiered. 1995 saw the premiere of Alle Größen decken sich zu, a German spoken theatre piece and Bereft of a Blissful Union made its debut in 1996. Wim Vandekeybus performed as an actor and dancer in a solo piece, Body, body on the wall... written and directed by Jan Fabre, which premièred in 1997.  7 for a Secret never to be told also appeared that same year. In 1998, Wim Vandekeybus created a theatre piece based on the life and work of Pier Paolo Pasolini.

In Spite of Wishing and Wanting, a performance with 10 male dancers with original music by David Byrne premiered in 1999. In 2000, Inasmuch as Life is borrowed...  and Scratching the Inner Fields premiered. In 2002, the dance video In Spite of Wishing and Wanting was released and NACHTs, a solo for Wim Vandekeybus received its première.

In 2002, by request of dancer/choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui of Les Ballets C. de la B., Wim Vandekeybus directed the solo it, in Le Vif du Sujet. This performance was later reworked into a 50-minute version, including film images by Vandekeybus. As a guest director for Toneelgroep Amsterdam, Vandekeybus premiered Sonic Boom. Blush had its première in September 2002 in Brussels.