Dialog Festival

Gardenia

author:  Vanessa Van Durme, music: Steven Prengels, set design: Paul Gallis, costume design: Marie ‘costume’ Lauwers, hair stylist: Claudine Grinwis Plaat Stultjes, lighting design: Kurt Lefevre, sound design: Sam Serruys,  premiere: June 2010

Creative team / performers: Vanessa Van Durme, Griet Debacker, Timur Magomedgadzhiev (replaced by Hendrik Lebon), Andrea De Laet, Richard ‘Tootsie’ Dierick, Danilo Povolo, Gerrit Becker, Dirk Van Vaerenbergh, Rudy Suwyns

“Nine individuals so special you will want to get to know them. Want to embrace them. What binds them are the marks scored deep in their souls, what drives them is an unimaginable will to survive. In the hope they will succeed. Through transformation. Or not. In the knowledge that the price is incredibly high.”  

Alain Platel, Frank Van Laecke.

Inspired by Sonia Herman Dolz’s film Yo soy así, in which the closing of a transvestite cabaret in Barcelona affords us a glimpse into the private lives of a memorable group of old artists, the actress Vanessa Van Durme gathered a number of transsexual and transvestite friends in order to win over Alain Platel, Frank Van Laecke and Steven Prengels for a project that can be called unique in every respect. Gardenia is not a work of fiction. Gardenia is a singular account, the most intimate of tales. Platel and Van Laecke’s production goes deep into the turbulent lives of nine striking people, nine mature individuals who seemingly effortlessly navigate the twilight zone between being male and being female. Each is on a quest, each has his or her own moving story.

“It was obvious the audience would go mad about this band of elderly men in evening gowns! – shouted Vanessa Van Durme after a sustained standing ovation that Gardenia received at the Avignon Festival.”  

P.N. Les Inrockuptibles

les ballets C de la B was founded by Alain Platel in Ghent, Belgium, in 1984. It quickly became a company that enjoyed great success at home and abroad. Over the years it has developed into an artistic platform for a variety of choreographers, taking its inspiration not only from Alain Platel but also from such masters as Christine De Smedt, Koen Augustijnen and Lisi Estaras. The company is still open to collaboration with artists from various disciplines, organising, for instance, open workshops. The work of les ballets C de la B is a “unique mixture of artistic visions”, which are difficult to classify. The company’s motto is “dance is for the world and the world is for everyone”, a attitude that translates into an original style – popular, eclectic, anarchic, committed.