The performance Slow Sports had its premiere in April 2012. It is a dance piece exploring the fascination with sports, and how they are being experienced. Since the birth of the Olympics in Ancient Greece, competitive sports have involved the participation of both the athlete and the spectator. This communication between competitors and audience is not incidental to competitive sports, but integral to it. In these times sports are appreciated, and athletes elevated, at a level perhaps not seen since classical times. Today, sporting events are arguably the dominant aesthetic experience available to our culture. This piece explores the way athletes experience movement, the physicality of athletes and sportsmen: their bodies, their beauty, their rhythmical movements, their facial expressions, the sounds their actions produce, and how the experience of competitive sports is structured for the spectator: how athletic events are organized, how they are portrayed and commented on in the media (through television, documentaries, radio and newspapers).

But why not perform Slow Sports for kids?

We started to reflect about a Slow Sports version for kids. For sure they would be interested in the subject. Slow Sports revolves around a kind of game and competitive behavior that everybody knows from a very early age: romping with peers on the playground, school sports days, pretending to be famous sports heroes, commenting on each other’s sports performances, inventing new sports and rules, etc...

Structurally speaking, though, a number of changes were made to the original performance: rethinking the rhythm and tempo, reducing the duration of certain scenes with regard to the time span of children concentrating, reconstructing scenes to create a new and dynamic tension.

The result is Slow Sports Kids, a production for children and adults +8. 

Concept Albert Quesada Creation and Performance Marcus Baldemar, Kim Ceysens, Víctor Pérez Armero, Federica Porello, Mireia de Querol, Albert Quesada, Zoltan Vakulya Sound Design Christian Francois Light and Video Design Jan Van Gijsel Adaptation light, Sound and Video Nicolas Olivier Costumes Sofie Durnez Dramaturgy Peter Anthonissen Production fABULEUS Coproduction Krokusfestival P2 – cultuurcentrum Hasselt and Theater aan het Vrijthof i.k.v. interLimburgse Subsidies, Charleroi Danses With the support of El Graner (Barcelona) 

TOUR 2018

March 15-19  Mercat de les Flors, Barcelona, Spain

TOUR 2015

February 17  (premiere)  Krokus Festival, Hasselt, Belgium

February 19  Spinrag Festival, Kortrijk, Belgium

March 20  TAKT Dommelhof, Neerpelt, Belgium

March 25  Storm op Komst, Turnhout, Belgium

April 20,21,22  OPEK, Leuven, Belgium

October 8,9  Think Big Festival, Munich, Germany

October 20  CC Hasselt, Belgium

October 24  Maas, Rotterdam, Holland

October 25,26,27  DE Studio, Antwerp, Belgium

October 29  CC Mechelen, Belgium

November 6  Rode Hond / STUK, Leuven, Belgium

November 26  Wilrijk, Belgium

December 13  Charleroi, Belgium

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See Full Video Here (request password at quesadaalbert@gmail.com)

The sprinter crouching in the blocks, just before the sound of the starting gun.

The swimmer gliding effortlessly through the water.

The boxer who, by a few millimeters, barely evades the knock out blow.

There is something in the pure physicality of sports that we find uniquely attractive and fascinating. From the Games of Ancient Greece, to the frenzied crowds of modern stadiums, sporting competition has produced a powerful, communal form of intoxicating ecstasy.

With Slow Sports, choreographer Albert Quesada brings the total experience of sport into the theatre. He places the audience on a grandstand and provides five dancers with the rules of the game. In this arena we try to understand how sports are experienced, and why they hold such a fascination for us.

Read the interview to Albert Quesada at De Standaard by Sarah Vankersschaever.

Read the review of Slow Sports at De Standaard by Luc Van Doorslae.

Read the review of Slow Sports at Die Deutsche Bühne by Isabell Steinbock

Concept: Albert Quesada Created By and With: Marcus Baldemar, Federica Porello, Mireia de Querol, Albert Quesada, Zoltán VakulyaSound Design: Christian Francois Light & Video Design: Jan Van Gijsel Music: Gustavo Cerati, Andrew Bird, C. Van Roland Edwards, Christian François Costumes: Vera Tussing & Albert Quesada Illustrations: Gosia Machon Texts: JS Rafaeli Voice: JS Rafaeli, Katie Vickers, Marcus Baldemar Production: Albert Quesada / wp Zimmer Current Production and Touring: Albert Quesada / Klein Verzet vzw Coproducedby: Monty, WorkSpace Brussels, Kunstencentrum BUDA (BE), PACT Zollverein (Départs) (DE) With the support of the Flemish Authorities, Départs/European Commission (Culture program), CoNCA, SACD Residencies: Monty, WorkSpace Brussels, STUK, Kunstencentrum BUDA (BE), La Caldera, L'animal a l'esquena (ES), DeVIR/CAPa (PT), PACT Zollverein (DE) Touring: BUDA Kortrijk (26 April), STUK Leuven, PACT Zollverein

___________TOUR___________

2011 November 26 Slow Sports (work in progress), L'animal a l'esquena, Celrà, Girona, Spain

2011 December 10 Slow Sports (work in progress), Teatre Antic, Barcelona, Spain

2011 December 13 Slow Sports(work in progress), La Caldera, Barcelona, Spain

2011 December 15 Slow Sports(work in progress), workspacebrussels WTP#03, Bronks, Brussels, Belgium

2012 April 20,21 Slow Sports(premiere), Monty, Antwerp, Belgium

2012 April 26 Slow Sports, Kunstencentrum BUDA in collaboration with Le Vivat and L'Entorse, Kortrijk, Belgium

2013 February 22 Slow Sports, D-Spot, CC Brugge, Belgium

2013 June 21 Slow Sports, Summer Festival, PACT Zollerein, Essen, Germany

This is a site specific performance.

It is available for touring from January 2015.

download dossier

read the review

see the videos Preview / Fixed camera / Close Ups

For further information, please contact us at:

quesadaalbert@gmail.com

© Tine Declerk at Dansand, July 2014