The choreographer with the smell of sulfur will not scandalize Charleroi this fall.
Scheduled for October 30, the performance of
The Fluid Force of Love,
by Belgian choreographer and director Jan Fabre, was canceled on Saturday by the organizers of the Charleroi Dance Biennale.
Taken by mutual agreement with the artist, this deprogramming would take place following
various
“pressures”
and a climate deemed deleterious, according to the organization of the Biennale.
Prepared by the Troubleyn troupe, also directed by Jan Fabre, the play was to occur in the Stables of Charleroi.
Read alsoJan Fabre accused of sexual humiliation
"Given the current context, the pressures and the invectives that have surrounded this program, Charleroi danse and Troubleyn consider that it is in the general interest not to expose their teams to potential violence"
, declared the Choreographic Center on Saturday. de Wallonie-Bruxelles, which is organizing the Biennale.
“We are neither censors nor judges.
However, we do not have the right to endanger the performers, "
said Charleroi dance director Annie Bozzini in a statement, regretting an
" unfortunate "
decision
.
Tried for sexual harassment at work
"There have been threats on social networks, including that all the seats will be bought for the show to take place in front of an empty hall, which is particularly violent for the artists
," added Annie Bozzini.
There was also pressure on the company itself ”.
Accused since September 2018 by around twenty former collaborators of humiliation and sexual intimidation, the artist is due to appear on September 21 before the Antwerp Criminal Court where he will be tried for
"violence"
and
"sexual harassment in work ”
in respect of
“ twelve employees ”
, as well as for an
“ indecent assault ”
.
“I never intended to intimidate or hurt people psychologically or sexually,”
Jan Fabre defended in 2018.
The 62-year-old choreographer and plastic artist is known for his excessive and subversive shows as well as for his repeated scandals. At the origin of the play
Je suis sang
, which triumphed at the Festival d'Avignon in 2001, Jan Fabre also staged the 24-hour marathon show
Mount Olympus
, which struck people with its excessiveness and its sequence. of collective masturbation. Among the artist's most discussed recent performances, the hanging of dead dogs from butcher's fangs sparked controversy in 2016, during a retrospective dedicated to him at the Hermitage Museum in Russia. Show
"absurd",
halfway between the theater and the ballet,
The Fluid Strength of Love
was to
“question, with a lot of mischief, the mechanics of the sexual revolution”
, according to the description of the piece provided on the Charleroi danse site.
"The question is more to know who we love than how we love"
, also promised Jan Fabre, author and director of the show.