Cindy Van Acker

Quiet Light

Dance performance at Théâtre Les Halles as part of Biennale Son

Cindy Van Acker's latest creation, Quiet Light, is a powerful, atmospheric work. It is haunted by magnificent performers Stéphanie Bayle and Daniela Zaghini, who populate the stage with presence and absence. As the title suggests - silent light - Victor Roy's lighting scheme creates random conditions of visibility: you never know when the dancers will appear or disappear. This play with shadows is exhilarating, full of trompe-l'œil, spectacular jumps in scale and breathtaking superimpositions. With dance, Cindy Van Acker has sought out the steaminess and deep blacks beloved of Léon Spilliaert's paintings: she spent long hours alone in the Flemish painter's retrospective at Lausanne's Fondation de l'Hermitage in 2023.

Held together by the striking gemellity of these two bodies, the piece tracks down sensations of ephemerality and evanescence, as do the sounds of young American Lea Bertucci, processed by Denis Rollet. An electronic breath that at times seems to link all beings present in the theater, in an unreal suspense. In this choreographic composition, as meticulous as lace, there is a kind of radical self-emptying. What's left? Constantly shifting visual disturbances. Meteorology. Of the infra-perceptive. Cindy Van Acker substitutes pictorial fragility, temporal porosity, furtive encounters and precise lines for a belief in masterful, standardized representation, in an attempt to approach what might lie between matter and anti-matter. A sensitive poetics enchanted by a dance of almost nothing.

‍

‍

Cindy Van Acker

Born in 1971
Based in Geneva

Trained in classical dance in Antwerp, Cindy Van Acker has been creating her own pieces since 1994. She founded Cie Greffe in Geneva in 2002. Her meticulous writing, which combines slowness, mentalization, constraint, geometry, minimalism and sound spatialization, unfolds in an extremely singular territory. Over the past 20 years, alternating between powerful solos and striking group pieces, and working with movement at the heart of opera, Cindy Van Acker has produced a dance that is essentially abstract, yet always directly connected to the idea of struggle and resistance: de strijd in Flemish.

Cindy Van Acker's career has been marked in particular by her encounters with choreographer Myriam Gourfink, electronic musician Mika Vainio, visual artist Victor Roy and director Romeo Castellucci. Since November 2017, Cindy Van Acker has been an Associate Artist at the ADC (Association pour la danse contemporaine) in Geneva. Her work has earned her numerous distinctions (including two Swiss Dance Prizes and the Chevalière de la Légion d'honneur medal). Cindy Van Acker was awarded the Grand Prix suisse des arts de la scène / Anneau Hans Reinhart 2023 and the Prix culturel Leenaards 2023.