Programme
Dates
Thu 25 May | 19.00 - 20.00
Location
Rabarber / Theater Merlijn
Artist
Heavy Hitters & Lea Ved
Ticket price
€ 0 - € 16
Breakdance, hip-hop, and contemporary dance merge into an organic whole in this performance by local heroes and international choreographic talent.
Lea Ved has a background in the practice of breakdance and hip-hop, and she currently dances with the Nederlands Danstheater 1 where she works together with great international choreographers. She won the Club Guy & Roni Partner Award as a choreographer during the 2021 Rotterdam International Duet Choreography Competition.
In Common Enemy, Ved unites the apparent extremes of her dance background. Contemporary dance, hip-hop, and breakdance merge into an organic whole. She collaborates with the Heavy Hitters, the close crew and local heroes from the Haags Hiphop Centrum who produced no less than the world champion breakdance.
With 6 dancers, Common Enemy proceeds from the question how chaos and menace can make a community stronger. In a game situation of group versus individual balance, the movement patterns of ‘man’ and ‘the B-boy’ come together in extremely physical dance theatre. An abstraction of breakdance persists in questions about our instincts and interpersonal dynamics.
After a fruitful research period in 2022, the crew and choreographer created this full-length performance on invitation by Korzo; you can see this performance in the auditorium of drama school Rabarber.
Extra
following the performance on 26 May, there will be a curated conversation with the creatives.
The H3C Heavy Hitters, Heavy Hitters for short, is a collective that consists of various talented individuals with a passion for breaking. Established at the Hague HipHop Centre (H3C) in 2014, the Heavy Hitters has been a home for the most talented individuals who are looking to take their art form to the next level. In addition, this collective made for a level playing field where various individuals with varying backgrounds could understand and embrace each other. Through the years, the Heavy Hitters have grown into a tight multicultural family where the members share a unique bond. Through the experiences within the group, they found a unique language spoken within the group; verbally and non-verbally. This makes for a strong chemistry that is always present, but is especially visible during dancing. The Heavy Hitters started as a crew consisting of seasoned battle cats that have put their name on the map within the breaking scene. In recent years, the crew has also ventured into the world of theater with their own unique and exceptional mixture and approach to breaking where they combine their distinctive identity with the raw expressions of breaking.
Lea Ved is a dancer and choreographer from the US. She currently dances with the Nederlands Dans Theater. During her professional dance career, she has danced a variety of styles: from roots of breakdance and hip hop with Victor Quijada/Rubberbandance group in Montreal, Canada, to dancing the role of Juliet in Mats Ek's Julia & Romeo with the Royal Swedish Ballet in Stockholm.
After graduating from the Juilliard School in 2013, she has worked as a freelance artist and also as a repertory company dancer. She created new work with Crystal Pite, Hofesh Schechter, Sharon Eyal, Marina Mascarell, Yoann Bourgeois, among others - and at the same time shared workshops, seeking creative exchange to further develop as a maker. Her background lends itself to an evolving process of physical research and creation and emphasises individual expression and collaboration. Her most notable works have been made for smaller theatres, such as Gothenburg's Opera Danskompani, NDT's Switch programme, and Korzo Theatre.
"A brotherhood, a family, or perhaps another ambiguous representation of community in the world at large are reflected in these seven bodies, moving through a base expertise of breakdance into abstractions of how it meets a range of human expression -- holding up, colliding, supporting, dragging, breaking each other apart, and ultimately integrating all fragments to connect into a cohesive union."
— Lea Ved
