D Festival showcases best in contemporary dance in Brussels

The D Festival is a vibrant showcase of the contemporary dance scene in Brussels, and the 12th edition from 3 to 13 April is no exception.

A total of six performances, including five new works, explore various aspects of human experience, from migration and identity to emotional challenges.

Organised and hosted by two of the capital’s liveliest venues, Marni and Senghor, the festival is dedicated to promoting emerging choreographers and dance companies yet to benefit from public subsidies.

The two multidisciplinary spaces are also committed to collaborating with artists, predominantly dancer-choreographers, who tackle pertinent issues in society. These concerns are reflected in performances that are anchored in the here and now, while collectively calling for a better future.

Showing consistent and ongoing support for these artists is a key philosophy of the annual event. Among those returning to D Festival are Brussels choreographer Fanny Brouyaux who performs a new solo exploring various emotional states, To be schieve or a Romantic Attempt on 3 and 4 April. Meanwhile, Léa Vinette, who has performed at a previous edition of the festival, now presents her first choreography  Nos feux, a work for two dancers.

Migration as an act of survival and evolution is the central theme of two new works: Moi, voyageur de rêve by Youri de Goussel on 3 and 4 April and March On! (pictured) by Maria Eugenia Lopez on 12 and 13 April.

In the first, the choreographer pays an emotional tribute his Macedonian grandfather who emigrated at the age of 18 to escape war and have the freedom to shape his own destiny. De Goussel recreates this journey in a series of nocturnal landscapes that invites the audience to appreciate the determination of all of those who have left their homes in search of a safer and better future.

The second work, by a choreographer originally from Venezuela, transforms the simple act of walking into a symbol of wandering and travel. It proves to be a powerful gesture that expresses revolt at the stigmatisation of migrants while seeking to promote a movement of resistance and solidarity. Lopez performs the piece alongside two other dancers with musical accompaniment provided by a drummer. 

Belgian-Congolese artist Nadine Baboy invokes poetry and music in Désintégration Culturelle on 3 April in a revisited version of her choreography that is influenced by hip-hop, dancehall, flamenco, waacking, tango and house dance. It examines the challenges of carving out your own place in society when in possession of a multicultural identity. 

If social revolt and collective action is the subject of Hippolyte Bohouo’s new work Saturation (Attouh) on 6 April, the two dancers traverse a complex situation with positivity and joy. Their arms open to the world, they take satisfaction in the simple act of giving. Drawing on the customs of his home country the Ivory Coast, Bohouo shows how Attouh is a warm and friendly embrace and a symbolic and selfless giving of oneself to family and community.

D Festival
3-13 April
Marni Theatre, Rue de Vergnies 25 (Ixelles)
Senghor, Chaussée de Wavre 366 (Etterbeek)

Photos: March On! ©Magali Horbert. Sorry! Our prize giveaway has now closed and the winners have been notified.