Kikker X Stadsschouwburg Utrecht: FRANK
Cherish Menzo | GRIP & Theater Utrecht i.s.m. Dance on Ensemble

Kikker X Stadsschouwburg Utrecht: FRANK
Cherish Menzo | GRIP & Theater Utrecht i.s.m. Dance on Ensemble

Kikker X Stadsschouwburg Utrecht: FRANK
Cherish Menzo | GRIP & Theater Utrecht i.s.m. Dance on Ensemble

'We are in an alien world. Only awkward movement is possible.' With FRANK, short for Frankenstein, choreographer Cherish Menzo explores the figure of the monster.
Beyond a mere physical or visual representation, she studies the monstrous as an embodiment of beliefs and narratives that frighten and horrify us, but also fascinate us. Distortion is used as a choreographic motif to generate movement material, and as a means of disrupting dance, throwing the structure loose. Cherish explores how decay and gradual deterioration can affect one's movements.
The performance space fabulates on the Baka Gorong, a place at the back of the former plantations and in front of the wetlands, where enslaved people in Suriname secretly went to perform Winti rituals-demonised under Dutch colonial rule-and to consider fleeing.
Together with Omagbitse Omagbemi, Mulunesh and Malick Cissé -performers from different generations - she creates a ritualistic, apocalyptic and carnivalesque performance. Constructed identities are questioned, bodies deviate to the point of becoming unbearable and bursting. The dancers interpret their place in the world with disjointed, broken-down movements as the set collapses around them. In a shaky, faltering world full of unlikely, gruesome and violent events, the performance evokes memories of early horror films and that grim feeling, that flicker in the dark.
Credits
concept en director Cherish Menzo creation Malick Cissé, Mulunesh en Omagbitse Omagbemi performance Malick Cissé, Muluneshen Omagbitse Omagbemi photo's Bas de Brouwer www.dance-on.net, www.grip.house.nl.










