CARROUSEL
In the ‘Carrousel’ performance, the actors of the Noord Nederlands Toneel (Northern Dutch Theater), the dancers of Club Guy & Roni and the musicians of the Asko | Schönbergs ensemble showed a phenomenon of the Great Depression in 1930s America: dance marathons. These exhausting marathons could last for months, attracted lots of thrill-seeking audiences and lured participants by rewarding of a large cash prize.
Carrousel was Guy Weizman’s first performance as the new artistic director of Noord Nederlands Toneel and it was the starting point of a new interdisciplinary form of theater in which dance, music, theater and art come together. Because the story of the performance started on day 100 of a dance marathon, director Guy Weizman looked for a way to give the audience a short summary of the preceding days. For this, he wanted to use a form of animation. With this in mind, Guy Weizman involved WERC as co-producer in the Carrousel performance.
Based on images of the actors of Carrousel, WERC designed a video animation that formed the start of the performance. In addition to the visual introduction to the story, WERC also contributed by making the dancers’ exhaustion tangible and arousing the enthusiasm and excitement of the audience through their video animations.
With the video animations for Carrousel, WERC chose a clear analog working method. By using hand-drawn video animations, WERC added an extra dimension to the performance, making the visitor part of a fierce and compelling theater experience. With the Carrousel performance, WERC toured throughout the Netherlands.
