The body loses its balance, senses danger, resists another body or yields to a force it cannot control. These movements happen before they can be explained. They belong to a knowledge that is not entirely rational and cannot be described in language: the capacity of the body to perceive the world before consciousness assembles experience into a narrative.
This territory is explored by the Belgian choreographer Wim Vandekeybus. On 24 October his company Ultima Vez brought Infamous Spawn to the Griboyedov Theatre in Tbilisi, as part of the 29th Georgian International Arts Festival GIFT. The production, which combines contemporary dance, poetry, music and film, draws on Greek mythology, not as a collection of ancient tales but as a living system of desire, rivalry and family conflict.
Vandekeybus founded Ultima Vez in the mid-1980s. His first major work, What the Body Does Not Remember (1987), already defined his creative signature: physical unpredictability and movement that seems dictated by instinct rather than by a pre-composed plot. In his theatre, movement becomes not merely the arrangement of beautiful steps but a dramatic and philosophical statement. Gradually the choreographer began to incorporate narrative and text into his works, yet the physical impulse has remained the principal principle: the story unfolds through bodies rather than being merely illustrated by them.
At the core of Infamous Spawn lies a familiar story. At the centre of the Greek pantheon are Zeus and Hera, surrounded by their descendants, whose relationships are defined by desire, rivalry and the struggle for power. Vandekeybus, however, regards these mythological figures not as distant symbols but as members of a dysfunctional family. Zeus and Hera appear only on screen, while their children are forced to live in a world their parents have created and to build relationships within frameworks they did not choose.
The production brings together different means of expression. The text was written by the British poet Fiona Benson; the music is by Warren Ellis, the Australian group Dirty Three and ILA. Rather than subordinating dance, poetry and film to a single narrative, Vandekeybus allows them to interact. Meaning emerges from the juxtaposition and accumulation of physical and sensory information.
One example of this approach is the figure of Hephaestus, god of fire and metalworking. In myths he is associated with physical imperfection and rejection, yet his mastery makes him indispensable. In the production this role is performed by the Scottish artist and contortionist, that is, a person of extraordinary flexibility, Ione Cunney. Her unusual physicality allows the character to be reinterpreted: instead of correcting a body that does not conform to divine ideals, the choreographer reveals its expressive possibilities. The mythological story thus becomes an occasion for a conversation about exclusion and about the conditions on which society grants a person value.
The performance of Infamous Spawn at the GIFT festival gave Tbilisi audiences and professionals the opportunity to encounter an approach in which choreography becomes a way of linking physical expression with mythology, poetry and philosophical questions. Events of this kind expand our understanding of what theatre can convey and how its elements can be organised.
Letters