Body/Space
Academy of Architecture 2006–2007

As part of a project on location in the Westergasfabriek and in public space, choreographer Krisztina de Châtel goed in search of the connection between body, space and architecture. An odd combination? De Châtel’s choreographies always presuppose a relationship between the body and its environment. To her, placing a choreography in a purpose­built/artificial environment such as a theatre or museum is not necessarily more interesting than placing it in the context of everyday environments and their dynamics: the building, the street and its junctions, the landscape in which one finds oneself. De Châtel is peerless in the way she has got to grips with her environment: quantifying space, defining it in diagrams, leveling floors and raising up her constructions on bricks. But no matter how focused she is on the spatial qualities of her dance­architecture, ultimately it is all about humanity – the small, powerful, vulnerable, courageous human; the human relating to the collective, and relating to its environment.

‘Among choreographer­spatial artists, Krisztina distinguishes herself by being an out­and­out ‘builder’; her dance compositions seem to resist the fleeting nature of her medium, that most fundamental distinction between the arts of architecture and dance.’
Francien van der Wiel, De ruimte als tegenspeler
(The space as co­performer)

Krisztina de Châtel
Krisztina de Châtel, Hungarian by birth, has made fifty choreographies and two dance films. Her performances are typified by interplay of dance, music and visual art. She also frequently chooses to have her work performed at non­ theatrical locations. From 2009 De Châtel will lead Dansgroep Amsterdam (Amsterdam  Dance Group), together with choreo grapher  Itzik Galili. This new company is attached to  the Amsterdamse Stadsschouwburg and Theater Bellevue.

AIR is a programme of the Art Practice and Development research group in collaboration with the institutes of the Amsterdam University of the Arts / www.air.ahk.nl.

Body/Space booklet 

Co-production (un)framed with Dansgroep Amsterdam

http://www.dechatel.nl