The dance company that has achieved the 'fan phenomenon'

BarcelonaIt has been fifteen years since Mercat de les Flors, Festival Grec and Temporada Alta first brought shows by Peeping Tom to Catalan audiences. The fascination with those incredibly original creations by a Belgian company, with never-before-seen dancer movement and a hyperrealistic, almost cinematic atmosphere, sealed their love affair with the city. Directors Gabriela Carrizo and Franck Chartier even moved to Barcelona, although Peeping Tom maintains its headquarters in Brussels, and, especially in alliance with the Teatre Nacional, they have staged their latest shows from here, international co-productions that tour mainly in Europe and North America with a Catalan hallmark. This is the case with Chroniques, which can be seen in the Sala Gran of the TNC for more days than usual for dance: from June 4 to 14.

After S 62°58’, W 60°39’, signed by Chartier, it is now the turn of a production signed by Carrizo (the duo no longer works together but under the same umbrella). If that show was a metatheatrical exploration, now it's time to return to the force of movement that marked such unsettling pieces as Triptych or the family trilogy (Vader, Moeder, Kind). Carrizo launches five male figures onto the stage, "disarmed, stripped of narrative and scenography," and makes them advance through time, through different eras. They will have to overcome the forces of nature and the changing society that shapes them. There are stones on the stage, a hurricane is heard, and among the men, domination and the most primitive violence appear.

Carrizo sees that the world is becoming incomprehensible, but decides to confront this darkness through art. "We are entering a period so indecipherable, so unchronicleable... If we place a stone today, it falls tomorrow. It is the height of absurdity. How do we read the world today?" she wonders. The work is precisely the search for how to move forward in this context and how to continue seeking new stage forms after 25 years of creation.

The choreographer is aware that each spectator will read the performance based on their own background: "Without the reference of narration, what do you hold onto? Your cultural memory, images, books, things we have seen and heard." Because the work gives no clues, there is no text, only indecipherable murmurs: "Language has been crushed and only vestiges remain," she points out. Carrizo seeks to confront the human essence, and therefore the body, "in resonance with nature and violence."

Chroniques, which has dozens of co-producers, had its absolute premiere in Nice a year ago and already dazzled the director of the National Theatre, Carme Portaceli, who argues that "today a national theatre must be international." That is why she celebrates the creative link with Peeping Tom and other creators from abroad — like Angélica Liddell, who will spend two months in residence here —; how she seeks for Catalan artists to have alliances around the world. The public's adoration, which is about to sell out tickets for the nine performances, undoubtedly supports this.