The artistic language of Marc Vanrunxt
Marc Vanrunxt tries in his choreographic language to research and redefine time, space, energy and presence. Chorography is a sparse art and therefore has reconciled itself with temporary definitions and outcomes of its being. Starting form a holistic approach: everything is connected with everything, the art of choreography is according Vanrunxt more then the sum of the parts like : movement, light, sound, music, presence, time, duration, costume, colour, form, intention, soul, audience, … He gets the inspiration from the power , perseverance , weakness and doubts of humanity. He prefers to look at the dancing person then at the dancer. The body of work of Vanrunxt is based on oppositions such as visible/invisible, tangible/intangible. He has the ambition to collect these oppositions to discover something new. His artistic vocabulary is rooted in the tradition of punk and abstract expressionism.
Biography
Marc Vanrunxt (1960) has been at work as a dancer and choreographer for more than twenty years. Between 1976 and 1981 he studied and danced in the Dansschool An Slootmaekers in Antwerpen (Rosalia Chladek, Laban,..). His dance training was influenced above all by Central European dance, but the protestations of punk were at least as important. As a dancer he worked together with Jan Fabre, Thierry Smits and Truus Bronkhorst.
He made his debut as a choreographer in 1981, and since then has created more than thirty works of choreography. In the 1980's and 1990's he collaborated with other artists like the composers Serge Verstockt and Thierry Genicot, with the visual artists Anne-Mie Van Kerckhoven, Robert Cash, Koenraad De Dobbeleer and Danny Devos and with the dancer and costume designer Eric Raeves.
He has never conformed to trends, nor has he built up an extensive set of norms. His work is highly individual, even puzzling, hovering between mysticism and materialism. As a consequence he occupies a unique position in the dance world that can be rediscovered again and again.Vanrunxt attempts repeatedly to redefine choreography as a composition of physicality in motion. He pursues the distillation of this composition, a dance that is intended to leave the world and enter the image, while remaining keenly aware of the matter that surrounds and guides the dance. Earnestness, control and composition are crossed with winks, chaos and quotations.
Marc Vanrunxt is a founding member of the organisation for dance Kunst/Werk which is structurally funded by the Flemish Government since 2001. The last few years Marc has created many solo's for extraordinary performers such as Kitty Kortes Lynch, Etienne Guilloteau, Eva Kamala Rodenburg, Rob Fordeyn, Georgia Vardarou, Lise Vachon, Igor Shyshko and Marie De Corte. Vanrunxt is a guestprofessor at the Royal Conservatorium for Dance in Antwerpen. He also is frequently asked as a coach and mentor by young choreographers and students of P.A.R.T.S.
