Descend
✧ PRIX MAETERLINCK ✧
✧ NOMINATED as BEST DANCE PIECE ✧
✧ NOMINATED as EMERGING TALENT : VIOLETTE WANTY ✧
✧ RENCONTRES DE LA SABAM 2024 ✧
✧ DESCENDRE : AWARD-WINNING TEXT ✧
SYNOPSIS
DESCEND is a portrait of a woman standing before the sea. Unsettled by its motion, its waves, she no longer remembers why she shouldn’t jump. Through dance and narration, she explores the dual nature of water: its beauty and danger, its rhythm and chaos. Should we turn our backs on the ocean ? On the inner seas that rise and fall within us ? On the tides that shape our bodies and thoughts ?
Should we silence the sirens once and for all?
In this story, Ulysses is a woman.
ARTISTIC APPROACH
For several years now, my research has been grounded in a process of hybridization, questioning the boundary between literature and choreography.
If dancing is one of our earliest talents, we are also the only animal species that creates narratives, that needs to do this thing : to tell stories.
By shifting this narrative impulse into the choreographic field, I propose an immersive experience in which the body speaks without attempting to express an opinion.
“Flat writing” (as theorized by Annie Ernaux) leaves full space for facts and actions, without interpretation or direct commentary on the part of the author. It relies on simple sentence structures, everyday vocabulary, and straightforward descriptions, without adjectives or metaphors.
By translating the principles of flat writing into the choreographic realm, I choose to believe in the body—in its presence, in its ability to communicate in silence, to summon worlds and unfold them within the body-mind of the other.
And I choose to trust words, their striking power, their impact on us.
Unlike LES AUTRES ( about the ecological crisis) or, more recently, noVland (which explores our relationship to truth), I am not seeking here to “take a position” in the realm of opinion.
This performance has absolutely nothing to do with taking a stance.
This text claims nothing ; it does not try to make you a better person, nor to fix life. This text does not give my opinion.
Essentially, it seeks to describe ; it is the portrait of a state.
Eléonore Valère-Lachky
PRO SPACE
PICTURES TO DOWNLOAD
TECHNICAL RIDER
DIFFUSION FILE
TRAILER on youtube (EN)
CHOREOGRAPHY, DIRECTION, TEXT Eleonore Valere-Lachky
DANCER, SINGER Violette Wanty
VOICE-OVER ACTRESS Heloise Jadoul - Marie Löcker for the German version
MUSICAL CREATIONS Manu Sampaio
TRANSLATOR GERMAN VERSION Katja Roloff
SOUND Jeremy Michel
LIGHTING Jean-Francois Philips / Anton Lachky
COSTUME Britt Ange
READERS Sabrine Durand / Marie Valere
PRODUCTION ANTON LACHKY & ELEONORE VALERE COMPANY
CO-PRODUCTION Les Brigittines - Contemporary Art Centre of Movement of the City of Brussels
CO-PRODUCED FOR THE GERMAN VERSION BY Staatstheater Mainz
WITH THE SUPPORT OF Federation Wallonie-Bruxelles - Dance Service, The National Lottery
DATES
2025-2026
27/10/25 Présentation of the text DESCENDRE at “lundis en coulisse"
02/12/25 DESCEND CWB / PARIS (FR) (PREMIERE FRANÇAISE)
28/02/26 DESCEND STAATSTHEATER/ MAINZ (DE) (PREMIERE ALLEMANDE)
19/03/26 DESCEND ZEPPELIN St-André Lez Lille (FR)
20/03/26 DESCEND ZEPPELIN St-André Lez Lille (FR)
09/04/2026 DESCEND CC Stavelot - Trois ponts (BE)
2026-2027
19/09/26 DESCEND Festial plesnih minijatura /ZAGREB (CR) (PREMIERE CROATE)
19/11/26 DESCEND Centre culurel de Wanze (BE)
2024-2025
13/03/2025 19:00 LES BRIGITTINES / BRUXELLES PREMIERE
14/03/2025 19:00 LES BRIGITTINES / BRUXELLES
15/03/2025 19:00 LES BRIGITTINES / BRUXELLES
DESCENDRE is presented as part of the Festival Puissance seules aux Brigittines at Les Brigittines.
PRESS
“ While Héloïse Jadoul's voice-over recounts the story in a striking blend of strength and emotion, Violette Wanty dances it without ever falling into the illustration of the facts we are told. Here, the body carries the frenzy of the beginnings, the movement of the waves that capsize us, the hesitations, the sudden flights, the collapses, the attempts to get back up... And this parallel evolution between an intimate story and a dancing body keeps us constantly on the edge of our seats and shakes us to the core.”
★★★ LE SOIR /J.M Wynants
” Wonderfull text ”
Cindya Izzarelli / KIOSK
"When the symbiosis between sound, text, and movement is perfect, dance never seeks to merely illustrate the message. The intimate story and choreography evolve side by side, weaving together a profoundly moving tale."
★★★★ Didier Beclard/ Le Suricate
INTERVIEW
LA LIBRE BELGIQUE / Stéphanie Bocart
Radio Interview Eléonore Valère-Lachky
KIOSK/RTBF 06/03/25 from 20min
