Knockout, The Director's Cut

December Dance Platform,
December Dance festival

Saturday December 13th 2008 _ 16:30
Stadsschowburg, Brugge


First performed in 2005, Knockout comes to the stage again for December Dance. At the invitation of the festival the piece has been 'recut' and includes a new, previously unreleased scene.

"A dreary night in Rome, on the soundtrack the click of a cigarette lighter, the sound of smoke being inhaled. A woman in a long raincoat with a platinum blond wig lounging on a street corner. It could not be more typically film noir. These few details hint at a world of seduction and betrayal, of double moral standards and romantic cynicism. It is precisely from this twilight zone that choreographer Ula Sickle, sound designer Peter Lenaerts and visual artist Alexis Destoop drew inspiration for their first collaboration, Knockout.

Knockout could very well be a choreographed variant of David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive; an out of joint montage of constructed fantasies, desires and expectations.”

Elke Van Campenhout
 (translated by Tom Hannes)


Concept: Ula Sickle, Alexis Destoop and Peter Lenaerts | Choreography: Ula Sickle | Developed & Performed by: Tawny Andersen & Ula Sickle | Sound Design: Peter Lenaerts | Scenography: Alexis Destoop | Light Design: Jan Maertens | Assitant: Nele Ana Reipl | Costumes Veronique Branquinho | Produced by Wp Zimmer for Rebecca September VZW | Co-produced by Pact Zollverein Essen, with the support of Dans In Kortrijk, Netwerk Aalst, Nadine Brussels, The Canada Council for the Arts & the Flemish Minister for Culture, Youth, Sport and Brussels Affairs.

Knockout (2005)

"A dreary night in Rome, on the soundtrack the click of a cigarette lighter, the sound of smoke being inhaled. A woman in a long raincoat with a platinum blond wig lounging on a street corner. It could not be more typically film noir. These few details hint at a world of seduction and betrayal, of double moral standards and romantic cynicism. It is precisely that twilight zone from which the collective Rebecca September drew its inspiration for its first performance, Knockout."

The collective’s name refers to Hitchcock’s American debut: Rebecca. The performance Knockout noticeably uses Hitchcock elements as well: the two dancers are each other’s mirror image, their faces hidden behind a blond and dark wig. Just like the splitting up of the mysterious main character Madeleine/Judy in Hitchcock’s Vertigo, the performance plays on the two-sided suggestiveness of eroticism and morality: the femme fatale veiled in platinum blond virtuousness.

Knockout could very well be a choreographed variant of David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive; an out of joint montage of constructed fantasies, desires and expectations."
Elke Van Campenhout, De Standaard

Concept Rebecca September | Choreography Ula Sickle | Developed & Performed by Tawny Andersen & Ula Sickle | Sound Design Peter Lenaerts | Scenography Alexis Destoop | Assitant Nele Ana Riepl | Produced by wp Zimmer for Rebecca September vzw | Co-produced by Pact Zollverein Essen. | With the support of Dans In Kortrijk, Netwerk Aalst, Nadine Brussels, The Canada Council for the Arts & the Flemish Minister for Culture, Youth, Sport and Brussels Affairs.

A Rebecca September production.






Photo: Alexis Destoop / Film: Peter Lenearts