Three performances where dance meets circus.
PANAMA PICTURES TAKEOVER
Age:
Youth and adults
Genre:
Theater, Circus theater
IN SHORT: This takeover consists of three performances by Panama Pictures, where dance and acrobatics merge. The performers move in and around architectural sets that both challenge and inspire them. The result is a thrilling experience in which balance, gravity, and imagination are constantly being tested.
Sensory Lecture
With the Sensory Lecture, Panama Pictures offers a warm-up for what you are about to experience—without giving away the performance itself. It is a mini-lesson in dramaturgical analysis. Teacher Guido Jansen discusses the themes and strategies of a performance. He does this by examining the work of other media makers and artists who have engaged with similar themes or strategies. This way, he can talk about the performance without “explaining it away.” In addition, Guido introduces the audience to the (visual) approach of choreographer Pia Meuthen: the combination of dance and acrobatics, the distinctive movement language, the very aspects that make Panama Pictures’ productions so unique and different. The Sensory Lecture is light and accessible, yet not without depth. Guido Jansen has a talent for making fairly complex concepts easy to grasp and illustrates them with plenty of imagery—in a way that “trains” the senses in advance.
Sustained
Alice Davies brings circus and performance art together as she slowly and sensitively shifts through a trapeze. In an endurance of twenty-five minutes the artist dissects and elongates movement in a dreamlike state of serenity, subtly sharpened by a layer of palpable tension. Influenced by the Butoh dance principle that there is ‘no wrong or right way of experiencing movement’ and by Alice’s own experiences with anorexia, Sustained looks for stillness, connection and attention within movement. The piece takes place at the meeting point between two desires: the desire to keep moving forward, and the desire to stand still and listen.
Into Thin Air
Stranded on a tilted staircase, three performers float in space. They must rely on themselves and on each other. At one moment, they nearly slip off the stairs; the next, they regain their balance, testing the boundaries of this lost space without foothold. Until gravity shifts and their bodies are pulled upward. Here, on this off-kilter island high above our heads, different laws apply, and an exciting game emerges in which acrobatics and dance merge. In the work of the dance/circus company Panama Pictures, movement enters into a challenging dialogue with architectural sets. The objects and spaces created by regular designer Sammy Van den Heuvel not only define the atmosphere but also form a challenge, an obstacle, and a motive for the performers. The dancers and acrobats of Panama Pictures push the limits of what is possible and make their physical sensations tangible for the audience.
PROGRAM
19:30 – 19:55 Group 1 start Sustained
19:30 – 19:55 Group 2 start Sensory Lecture
19:55 – 20:10 15 minute BREAK
20:10 – 20:30 Joint performance Into Thin Air
20:30 – 20:50 15 minute BREAK
20:45 – 21:10 Group 1 start Sensory Lecture
20:45 – 21:10 Group 2 start Sustained
Panama Pictures
With Panama Pictures, award-winning choreographer Pia Meuthen has developed an authentic signature: raw and unpolished, where dance, circus, and music flow together with natural fluidity. Pia Meuthen translates literary and philosophical sources of inspiration into poetic imagery, moving her audiences through the powerful physical impact and human resonance of her work. She presents worlds that are recognizable to the spectator, yet always leave space for personal interpretation.
With its boundary-crossing artistic language, Panama Pictures is a pioneer in the Netherlands and a welcome guest abroad. The company is the resident ensemble of the Verkadefabriek in ’s-Hertogenbosch and is structurally supported by the Performing Arts Fund, the Province of North Brabant, and the Municipality of ’s-Hertogenbosch.
Performers Into Thin Air
Tarek Rammo (NL, ’88) studied at the Codarts Circus Arts program in Rotterdam, specializing in aerial straps and floor acrobatics. He has worked with, among others, The 7 Fingers and Cirque du Soleil. Since 2017, Tarek has been one of Panama Pictures’ leading performers, appearing in nearly all productions. In addition, he works as a (guest) teacher and coach for Panama Pictures as well as for numerous circus and dance academies in the Netherlands and abroad.
Francesco Barba (IT, ’84) studied Modern Theatre Dance at the Academy of Theatre and Dance in Amsterdam and subsequently danced with and for, among others, Gabriella Maiorino, Liat Waysbort, and Giulio D’Anna. Since 2014, Francesco has been a defining performer with Panama Pictures, appearing in almost all productions. He also works as a (guest) teacher, both for Panama Pictures and for various dance academies.
Jefta Tanate (NL, ’92) trained at the ArtEZ Dance Academy in Arnhem and went on to work with, among others, Jasper van Luijk, Arch8, and Scapino Ballet Rotterdam. With Panama Pictures, he has performed in productions such as Requiem for Lost Things and The Future is not what it used to be.
Sustained
Alice Davies (London, 1999) is a trapeze artist and performance maker with a background in music, fine arts, writing and acting. She discovered circus arts at the age of 8.
Alice spent two years at Carampa Circus School (Madrid) before taking a bachelor at Fontys Academy for Circus and Performance Art in Tilburg, where her company is now based. Alice’s aerial practice blends principles of Butoh dance and Alexander Technique.
She has been researching sustainability in circus practices for the past three years, tackling themes such as mental and physical health and visibility and representation on stage. With a long-standing approach of intimate focus and attention to detail, her performative works question ‘the art of watching’ while attempting to offer a new perspective on spectacle. In 2024 Alice Davies was recognised for her solo work with the BNG Bank Circus Prize. She is an associated artist of Panama Pictures (Den Bosch).
Credits Into Thin Air
Pia Meuthen
Francesco Barba, Tarek Rammo, Jefta Tanate
Davide Bellotta, Strijbos & Van Rijswijk
Sammy van den Heuvel
Sanne Reichert
Bart Verzellenberg
Miquel de Jong
Credits Sustained
Alice Davies
Jean-Baptiste Thevenod
Camille Paycha
Tarek Rammo
Keep an Eye Foundation, CircusPunt BNG Bank, Festival Circolo, Panama Pictures, AFVK
Makersfonds Tilburg
Lance Priester
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