Ballet National de Marseille X (LA)HORDE: The Master’s Tools

Dance as resistance. A great fascination emanates from the human bodies that come together on the street to protest. The forces of individuals combine to form a mass energy. Based on the observation that contemporary opposition movements organize and express themselvesviasocial media channels, the French collective(LA)HORDEis searching for anaesthetic of revolution.

For the festival opening,(LA)HORDEis taking over the entire Muffatwerk. Dance, music and video art will come together in different spaces as part of the performative installation The Master's Tools. Several installative and performative works will be combined . In addition to the video works Cultes, Novaciéries and the eponymous The Master's Tools , the performances The Beast and Tomorrow Is Cancelledwill also be shown. The focus is on the performanceversion of To Da Bone, in which dances that can be summarized under the term"Post-Internet" are reinterpreted: The focus is on subcultural dance forms from the hardstyle and harddance scene, such as tekstyle, shuffle, hakken and above all: jumpstyle.

These forms of dance and expression emerged from electronic music scenes of the 1990s such as rave and hardcore. In Belgium and the Netherlands in particular , these subcultures developed their own dress code(e.g. tracksuits, bald heads) andiconic dance moves, which became aninternet phenomenon in thenoughties. The dancers- known as"jumpers" - film their dances in their own bedrooms or on the street and share the videoson social networks. Jumpstyle is extremely intense and physically demanding for the dancers. The French collective(LA)HORDE combines the movement vocabulary of these subcultural dances with the gestures of rebellion that seek expression on the street.

To Da Bone marks the early creative period of(LA)HORDE, whichtook over the direction of the Ballet National de Marseillein 2019. Their works, which are often interdisciplinary between dance, visual arts and music, have toured worldwide with great success. The collective gained international attention when it choreographed thecelebrity tour for Madonnain 2022. Especially for the International DANCE Festival Munich, (LA)HORDEare creating a new course oflive dance sequences and videos through which the audience can move freely. There is no real beginning and no end . Visitors are invited to stay in the performative installationfor as long as they like.