Program
Ways of being ready
Hendrik Van Maele • TENT
On March 3, Flemish maker Hendrik Van Maele will premiere at Veem House for Performance with Ways of being ready, his debut as a director. Hendrik’s work lies at the intersection of circus and mime. Hendrik previously performed in Floor van Leeuwen’s performance MUUR, also a co-production of TENT House for Contemporary Circus and Veem House for Performance.
Ways of being ready is a live encounter between two lifelong friends. One of them is trained as an acrobat, the other as a mime actor. One of them often comes too late, the other too early. One of them pulls off his nails, the other bites them. Both are looking for ways to be ready for the inevitable.
In their joint play, these two friends no longer strive for completion. They practiced and still practice the art of ‘being ready’, even though it is not a place where anyone ever arrives. In this physical encounter, they know how to pre-load this moment with their practiced bodies. This moment is wonderfully directionless and full of possibilities.
Hendrik Van Maele and Elliot Dehaspe, are in a constant negotiation about distance and intimacy. For while they seek the unexpected in extremis, they make an honest attempt to recognize the potential of each moment.
3 March 2022
20:00 — 21:00
Premiere
4 March 2022
20:00 — 21:00
+ After talk
About Hendrik Van Maele
Since the age of four, Hendrik Van Maele, born in Leuven (1995), has spent countless hours learning different disciplines in the local circus school (Cirkus in Beweging). In 2017, Hendrik graduated from the Academy of Circus and Performance Arts (ACAPA) in Tilburg where he focused mainly on partner acrobatics. Together with classmates he founded the collective Familiar Faces. They won the BNG Circus Prize and were nominated as laureates of the European circus label Circusnext. He performed in MUUR (TENT • Floor van Leeuwen) and Screws by Flemish director Alexander Vantournhout. With Ways of being ready Hendrik makes his debut as a director.
“I am driven by the curiosity of daily life. Circus offers me a framework to unravel this daily reality and to express it in a medium that is recognisable to the outside world.”
Between 2021-2023 Hendrik is a maker at TENT and works simultaneously on a solo, duet and trio. During this maker’s trajectory, he investigates the relationship between director and performer, circus maker and practitioner. By asking the question: “What does the circus practice of the future look like?”, he sets in motion a process that demands a rethink of one’s own creative practice, as well as the way circus looks at itself.
Credits
Concept & Direction
Hendrik Van Maele
Outside Eye
Esther Snelder • Margot Jansens • Floor van Leeuwen
Artists
Elliot Dehaspe • Hendrik Van Maele
Producer
TENT
Technique
Cahit Metin
Coproducers
Miramiro • Cirklabo • PERPLX • Provinciaal Domein Dommelhof • Veem House for Performance
Residencies
deruimte • Miramiro • PERPLX • Werkplaats Diepenheim • CC De Grote Post
Made Possible by
Amsterdams Fund for the arts • Fonds Podiumkunsten
Thanks to
Evangelos Biskas • Balthazar Glotain
Aftertalk March 4th with Hendrik Van Maele, Elliot Dehaspe, Zinzi Oegema en Koen van der Heijden
After the performance on the 4th of March we’ve invited circus maker Zinzi Oegema, mime performer Koen van der Heijden to join Hendrik, and Elliot for a talk about mime and circus. In Ways of being ready two disciplines meet: Elliot was trained as a mime actor, and Hendrik as an acrobat. The performance balances on the edge of mime and circus. How did these disciplines influence each other? Where do they challenge each other, and where do they meet?
