Dancer with an ultimate grace, Lisbeth Gruwez proposes a feminine counterpoint to the men of Odyssey desires of fame and heroism. Without any words and in all simplicity she dances all the women that stayed in the shadow of this mythical saga. It is along the spellbinding and hypnotic music of Maarten Van Cauwenberghe that Lisbeth Gruwez swirls and spins revealing desire, expectation, deficiency, helplessness, suffering of the other main character of the poem: Penelope. Her dance takes form of a spiral from which spring out nymphs and mermaids, Helen, Calypso and Circe and where the choreographer explores the multiple facets of femininity through the variety of movements.
LISBETH GRUWEZ
Le Quartz associated artist with Maarten van Cauwenberghe (2017-2020)
Lisbeth Gruwez (1977) is a Belgian dancer and choreographer, half of Voetvolk’s artistic team. She started practising classical ballet at the age of 6 and studied at the ‘Stedelijk Instituut voor Ballet’ (Antwerp), combining high school with a professional dance education. Once graduated, she joined P.A.R.T.S. (Brussels) to study contemporary dance. In 1999 she started working with Jan Fabre, being part of his guerriers de la beauté. Having performed in As long as the world needs a warrior’s soul (2000) and Je suis sang (2001), she rose to international fame because of Quando l’uomo principale è una donna (2004), the solo Jan Fabre created specifically for (and with) her. Apart from working with Fabre, she also collaborated with Ultima Vez (The Day of Heaven and Hell), Jan Lauwers|Needcompany (Images of Affection), Grace Ellen Barkey (Few Things), Riina Saastamoinen (Cry Me a River) and Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui (Foi).
In 2007 she founded Voetvolk, together with Maarten Van Cauwenberghe. Their work is an ongoing conversation between corporal and auditive movement, in order to achieve a symbiosis between the aural and the visual/physical. Apart from establishing her own choreographies with Voetvolk, Lisbeth Gruwez has danced in Arco Renz’ i!2, together with Melanie Lane, and she also played the leading role in Lost Persons Area, Caroline Strubbe’s first feature film. Gruwez danced in videoclips for A Brand (“Hammerhead”), Juliette and the Licks (“Death of a Whore”), Dirk Braeckman (promoting A.F. Vandevorst’s winter collection) and MUGWUMP (“At the Front”). She is also one of the “KVS faces”, the open ensemble of artists and thinkers associated with the Royal Flemish Theatre of Brussels.
