The Round

Claire Croizé

For the first time, Claire Croizé is creating a performance together with children (ages 9-13). The Round is a remake of Primitive and can play indoors and outdoors in a circular stage.

Do you remember the shooting stars
that raced through the sky like fast horses
and suddenly leapt over the obstacles
of our wishes? Do you remember?
(Rainer Maria Rilke)

The Round is an urban project with roots in Molenbeek, created and performed by eight Brussels children aged 9 to 13. Inspired by Claire Croizé’s 2014 performance Primitive, and featuring a circular stand specially designed by set designer Jozef Wouters, this performance promises to be a unique experience. It will premiere on March 1, 2025 during the Krokusfestival in ccHasselt.The Round floats on the untamed energy of youthful bodies in motion, intimately connected to each other and the universe. The performance embodies an explosion of life force and calls for a return to the source: the breath and rhythm of bodies.

Using self-invented games and rituals, Claire Croizé gets her young dancers to work with idiosyncratic forms of processions, parades and défilés. In this way, she stimulates a sense of group, togetherness and mutual solidarity. The group thus transforms into a veritable gang. At the same time, Claire emphasizes the individuality of the children and encourages them to draw inspiration from their personal experiences.

The music in The Round is entirely percussive, sometimes created by the children themselves based on physical rhythms, sometimes composed, for example by Xenakis, or also by the Brussels Fanfakids. This music acts as the rhythmic foundation that connects us all during the performance, with each other, but also with the earth and the cosmos as, for example, during the dance of the earth and the dance of the stars.With The Round, Claire Croizé creates a performance in which infrastructure is an integral part of the piece. This allows the performance to be performed at various locations and in different contexts: indoors and outdoors, in forests, on the banks of a canal, on the beach, behind a dune, in a park, but equally well in theaters, old warehouses or gymnasiums.
The Round is a performance for all ages from 8 and up.

Organisation:Cultuurcentrum Brugge