Arts Centre Vooruit, Ghent, Belgium

Dancers Mette Ingvartsen and Jefta van Dinther jump around on a trampoline non-stop, taking different poses as they move up and down. They jump high, cautiously, on two legs, on hands and feet, alone, or holding each other. The duo investigates how the human body moves and how it generates meaning in doing this. Even though they jump up and down simultaneously, small differences seep into the choreography: unwanted movements, accelerations or decelerations of just a few seconds, etc. Because of the trampoline, they cannot control every movement. They try to overcome the physical limitations that the trampoline (machine) and gravity (nature) subject them to.

This way, the performance becomes a metaphor for the utopian idea of progress of man, who always tries to get further and higher. It’s in the air creates an image of the searching man who has been thrown into a world that he cannot fully control. The body becomes the intersection of what is natural and what is cultural, the physical and the mental.

Danish-born Mette Ingvartsen lives and works in Berlin and Brussels, where she completed her training at PARTS in 2004. In her work she tries to uncover the perception of the body in different settings and manipulate it. To do this, she focuses on muscles at rest and in action, rhythm, tactility and the pleasure of moving. Her previous performance, Why we love action, also saw her explore the limits of the human body by imitating stunts and action scenes from Hollywood movies.

Dutch dancer Jefta van Dinther previously worked with several choreographers, including Keren Levi (who could be seen at Vooruit with the beautiful couple-like alongside Ugo Dehaes) and Ivana Müller (a guest at the game is up ’07 with While we were holding it together). He and Mette Ingvartsen, Bojana Cvejic and Sandra Iche form the company COCOs.

“It’s in the Air is a moving concert, a circus act, a reflection on dance, a children’s game, a piece of existential wisdom… It is amazing to discover how much meaning can be extracted from such a simple construction: two people jump up and down on a trampoline – and take off, physically as well as mentally.”
(Nicole Strecker, balletanz, August/September 2008)

www.aisikl.net/mette