Art meets the street as international dancers join local skaters in a raw, rule-breaking takeover of Powerhouse Arts.
Legend has it that skateboarding began when low waves drove surfers onto the asphalt of Los Angeles. Gliding through city streets and navigating obstacles, skating became its own peculiar choreography of friction, flow and velocity. A reclamation of public space. An act of defiance. A dream in motion.
In Skatepark, Danish choreographer Mette Ingvartsen works with skaters and dancers to explode the possibilities of movement on wheels. This is more than a spectacle of virtuosity; it’s the slow emergence of a community. Individuals try, fall, and push past boundaries, alone but together, as they carve out worlds of their own.
DENMARK / BELGIUM
“Ingvartsen’s latest performance breathes anarchy and freedom . . . Skatepark is a peerless performance with a hopeful message.”
—Theaterkrant.nl
“Its indelible aesthetic aftereffect persisted for days”
—Artforum
“the fun and rebellion of skate culture explode in the theatre.”
— De Standaard
Running Time
1 hr, 20 min (no intermission)
Content Note
This performance contains intermittent loud music and flashing lights.
Language
About the Company
About the Artist
Mette Ingvartsen is a Danish choreographer and dancer whose work blurs the line between movement, theory, technology, and political inquiry. Known for expanding the choreographic field, she has created landmark performance cycles including The Artificial Nature Series (2009–12)—featuring evaporated landscapes, The Light Forest, and Speculations—exploring non-human agency, and The Red Pieces (2014–17)—including 69 positions, 7 Pleasures, and 21 pornographies—a daring inquiry into sexuality, nudity, and power. Her group work Moving in Concert (2019) and solo The Dancing Public (2021), inspired by historical dance manias, continue this radical experimentation. A P.A.R.T.S. Brussels graduate with a PhD in choreography, she co-founded platform EVERYBODYS (2005–10) and has been artist-in-residence at Kaaitheater and Volksbühne. She has collaborated with Xavier Le Roy, Bojana Cvejic, Jan Ritsema, and Boris Charmatz.
Damien Delsaux, Manuel Faust, Aline Boas, Mary Pop Wheels, Sam Gelis, Fouad Nafili, Júlia Rúbies Subirós, Thomas Bîrzan, Briek Neuckermans, Indreas Kifleyesus, Arthur Vannes, Camille Gecchele, Mathias Thiers and local skaters
Sound design: Anne van de Star, Peter Lenaerts
Lighting design: Minna Tiikkainen
Music: Felix Kubin, Mord Records, Why the eye, sonaBLAST! Records, Rrose, The Fanny Pads, Restive Plaggona
Dramaturgy: Bojana Cvejić
Costumes: Jennifer Defays
Scenography: Pierre Jambé/Antidote
Technical design set: Stéphane Thonnard
Construction set: Construction workshop of Théâtre National Bruxelles: Joachim Pochet, Joachim Hesse, Pierre Jardon, Yves Philippaerts, Andrea Messana, Boyd Gates
Technical direction: Hans Meijer
Sound technicians: Milan Van Doren, YrjänäRankka, Filip Vilhelmsson
Lighting technicians: Bennert Vancottem, Jan-Simon De Lille
Choreographic assistant: Jacob Ingram-Dodd
Supervisor kids: Billie Meeussen, Victor Perez Hernandez
Production and administration officer: Joey Ng
Production: Oihana Azpillaga Camio
Communication: Jeroen Goffings
Management: Ruth Collier
Sponsors
Production: Great Investment vzw
Coproduction: La Danse en grande forme (Cndc - Angers, Malandain Ballet Biarritz, La Manufacture CDCN Nouvelle-Aquitaine Bordeaux · La Rochelle, CCN de Caen en Normandie, L’échangeur - CDCN Hauts-de- France, CCN2 – Grenoble, La Briqueterie – CDCN du Val de Marne, CCN - Ballet national de Marseille, CCN de Nantes, CCN d’Orléans, Atelier de Paris / CDCN, Le Gymnase CDCN Roubaix - Hauts-de-France, La Place de La Danse - CDCN Toulouse – Occitanie, La MC2 - Grenoble), Ruhrtriennale, Wiener Festwochen & Tanzquartier Wien, La Villette & Théâtre Chaillot, deSingel, Kaaitheater & Théâtre National Wallonie- Bruxelles, Kunstencentrum VIERNULVIER, Next Festival, Charleroi danse centre chorégraphique de Wallonie – Bruxelles, Theater Rotterdam, Perpodium
Skatepark is supported by: Fondation d’entreprise Hermès, Wilhelm Hansen Fonden Residency: Rosas, Charleroi danse centre chorégraphique de Wallonie – Bruxelles, deSingel Great Investment is supported by The Flemish Authorities, The Flemish Community Commission (VGC), Tax Shelter of the Belgian Federal Government & The Danish Arts Council
Photo credit
Bea Borgers