PROGRAMME
Not Standing was founded by choreographer Alexander Vantournhout.
Alexander Vantournhout, born 1989 in Brussels, studied cyr wheel and juggling at ESAC (Ecole Supérieure des Arts du Cirque) and contemporary dance at P.A.R.T.S. (Performing Arts Research and Training Studios) in Brussels. Alexander Vantournhout’s physical language bears the influences of a varied education and working circumstances. However, it is marked by two constants: his search for the creative and kinetic potential in physical limitation and the relationship or boundary between performer and object.
2014 marked the premiere of his first piece, Caprices, a choreographic solo set to the music of Sciarrino. Aneckxander (2015), a second solo, co-created with Bauke Lievens, won the CircusNext Prize, as well as the Young Theatre Prize and the Audience Prize at Theater Aan Zee (Ostend, 2015) and the Aerowaves network. Raphaël, a second co-creation with Bauke Lievens, followed in 2017.
In 2018, Alexander Vantournhout created La Rose en Céramique, a movement solo that accompanied Scali Delpeyrat’s theatrical solo at Festival d’Avignon that same year. Shortly after that, Vantournhout began to explore the dynamics underlying a male quartet in Red Haired Men. In SCREWS, created in 2019, Alexander Vantournhout, accompanied by four dancer-acrobats, guided the audience on a journey of reverberating micro-performances, ranging from short solos and duets to group choreographies.
With Through the Grapevine (2020), Alexander Vantournhout returned to the duet format inspired by the reverberations of his previous work Aneckxander (2015). In Contre-jour (2021), for the first time, Alexander Vantournhout did not perform on stage himself but gave the floor to a group of five performers from various backgrounds: dance, musical, theatre, circus, etc.
In 2022, VanThorhout premiered, a solo performance in which Alexander Vantournhout questions the stereotypical forms of masculinity through the mythological figure of Thor. This was followed in the summer of 2023 by Foreshadow, a group piece for eight performers in which a wall serves as a dance partner. In October 2024, every_body, a duet about everyday movements, premiered, and in June 2025, the site-specific group piece Frames was performed for the first time on location in Ghent.
Aneckxander as well as SCREWS, Through the Grapevine, VanThorhout and Foreshadow were selected for Het TheaterFestival, the prize for the most outstanding Belgian performances. In addition to his live performances, he has ventured into the realm of dance films, creating Screws & Stones (2019) and Snakearms (2021), the latter of which earned accolades at Het TheaterFestival, NY Segal Film Festival, and Cinedans Festival Amsterdam.
2025
