T.r.a.s.h. is renowned for its uncompromising dance performances, constantly seeking the boundaries with amazing dedication. At a crossroads of artistic disciplines – a combination of dance, performance and (live) music - for the past ten years the company has been challenging the traditional norms of theatre and dance. Artistic director Kristel van Issum, together with composer Arthur van der Kuip and set designer Paul van Weert, presents a concept based on contemporary culture, the pulse of our time and the portrayal of people, their bodies, their dilemmas and their fate. The result is explosive, hugely emotional and sometimes even almost violent dance theatre, performed on various stages and festivals in the Netherlands and abroad.
In 2006, Kristel van Issum was awarded the Ad Vinken Prijs by the City of Tilburg, and T.r.a.s.h. was presented with the Dansprijs van Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds [Prince Bernhard Cultural Fund Dance Award] in 2009.

Kristel van Issum
Artistic Director & Choreographer

Kristel van Issum works like a sculptor, peeling away the layers of the body right down to the core. She sees performers as sculptures, moved by energy, sound and instinct. She asks herself where conscious behaviour ends and instinct begins. She seeks a language of movement which seemingly allows the body to break natural laws. A language of dance in which the performer turns into a plaything rolling between body and soul.
Dance is filled with raw elements, often violent but sometimes also subtle. It is about outbursts which are controllable. The distorted body is an unmistakable part of the idiom of T.r.a.s.h. Van Issum wants to be open to everything which goes against logical and rational thought. In this process, she does not use traditional organised principles, but applies the concept of deconstruction, disintegration and construction of new structures of meaning; theatre becomes a sounding board and textual landscape.
The uncontrollable desire to separate everything from each other and then replace them in a different context; a world of ideas in which theatrical ingredients are peeled away, as it were, and then pieced back together. The emphasis lies on intertextuality and contextuality.

Arthur van der Kuip
Composer

Arthur van der Kuip is fascinated by an eclectic pallet of composition techniques. As such, the old polyphony of the Low Countries is mixed with the polyrhythms of the East, or a solid rock sound is supported by a folkloristic beat. Apparent musical contrasts merge into a single entity.
In the performances, it is important that the music is performed live. Control over time perception is one of the great strengths of live music; a prominent example of this is the use of ‘rubato’. In Italian ’rubare’ means stealing time or cheating time, withdrawal. In the interaction between live music and dance, the tempo of the different disciplines in relation to each other is vitally important. Something which becomes faster, becomes heavier and smaller, or: while the tempo slows down, the pulse starts racing.
The artistic core uses that contradiction in nature, the relationship between tempo and mass, in the choices it makes when creating the performance. The music enters into a dialogue with the phonetics of the performers, by giving the physical sound a place in the musical composition. The dialogue with the textual semantics emerges because the music forms the unconscious context of the scene, whereby a mood becomes absurd or perhaps even serious. The compositions are largely tonal by nature; this serenity helps emphasise the hard and chaotic character of the performances.

Paul van Weert
Set Designer

The sober style of the set designs created by Paul van Weert is thematic; for him the lack of a multimedia story is a conscious choice. The design is both aesthetic and realistic. The choice is related to the definition of time, which emerges from the world of codes and thus supports the desired interiors of the performance. The visual creates scope for associative strength. The desired theatricality is contemporary, without any frills. The emphasis is thus placed on the physicality of the performers.
The decor is important for the atmosphere. At the same time it is also a choreographic medium, because it directly influences the choreography. Over time, the set designs have become more theatrical; a modern, almost opera-style theatricality in huge spaces increasingly determines the visual element.

A short filmportrait by LADDS created for the presentation of the Dansprijs 2009 awarded by the Prins Bernard Cultuurfonds Noord-Brabant.

T.r.a.s.h. is supported by FPK, Province of Noord-Brabant, City of Tilburg.