Choreographer Dam van Huynh works in London with his troupe Van Huynh Company. A unique talent, he often uses everyday situations as points of departure, exploring, repeating and reworking the recognizable into suggestive movement languages. Van Huynh is also the artistic director of the cultural center Centre 151 in Hackney, London, a cultural headquarters for immigrants from Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia.

The festival, in collaboration with 3:e Våningen, has invited Van Huynh to work in residence in Gothenburg with his new production Dep. During the festival week, 3:e Våningen will be open for public viewings and residency dialogues. We will also present Dam van Huynh’s dance performance Đẹp.  

Đẹp

“Pina Bausch meets Bill Viola, then along comes Dam Van Huynh.
An intense, beautiful and profound work once seen never forgotten.” –Eighteen London

Đẹp is the Vietnamese word for beautiful. With his latest dance work, the UK based choreographer Dam Van Huynh explores influences from his South East Asian heritage. In Vietnamese culture, death is also a form of rebirth. When a person dies, the family and community enact rituals that will enable the deceased to pass into another realm, a higher state of being.

The work sees a shift in Van Huynh’s movement language as it delves ever deeper into the nature of the human condition. The dancers in ĐẸP are nude for a purpose. Fragile and vulnerable, their nudity literally strips them bare. Disrobed, free of distraction, their movement begins at the point where the mind transcends the physical self. Amplified and tracked by Martyna Poznanska’s numinous score, the movement in ĐẸP invites the audience to let go, reaching ever closer to the feeling of being alive.

Credits:
Concept and Choreography: Dam Van Huynh
Sound environment composition: Martyna Poznańska
Lighting: Antony Hateley
Dancers: Paul Davies, Marc Krause, Marta Masiero, Ieva Navickaite, Tommaso Petrolo, Rhys Dennis