João Dinis Pinho & Claire Hermans

What is our relation to the plastic that surrounds us? In an attempt to answer this question we have initiated a research with plastic as our raw material. Plastic is artificial and fake, but plastic is also, by definition, soft enough to be changed into a new shape. Fate is an imperative word when facing the repercussions of human’s abuse of nature. Fatalism seems to be the imperative attitude towards this changes, rewarding the passivity in which we see observe our surroundings crumble. In an attempt to exhaust this state, we aim at embodying fatalism rather than avoiding it. Perhaps after that we will be able to face the eco crisis pro-actively.

João Dinis Pinho is a performer and choreographer born in Portugal in 1994. Graduating in 2016 from ArtEZ, since then he works with Nicole Beutler in various performances as a choreography-assistant, repetitor and performer; and with Meyer-Chaffaud as performer in Soul#2 and Soul#4; among other artists. He has been creating his own works, ranging approaches from experimental improvised shows to dancy set choreographies and lecture performances, with projects in Holland, Portugal, Iceland and Mexico. Since 2017 he is the coordinator of a residency program at ArtEZ and AHK. In 2020 he is the curator of Come Together #5.

Claire Hermans is a dancer, acrobat and a handstands, dance and yoga teacher, born in The Netherlands in 1990. She graduated in 2016 from Trinity Laban, in London, after traveling the world for four years, where she soaked herself in the world of circus and yoga, becoming a Thai Yoga Massage Therapist and a Certified AcroYoga Teacher. Since 2016 Claire dances with Meyer-Chaffaud, performing in the Soul tetralogy; as well as with Andreas Denk/Plan d-, in several projects for children. As an acrobat/handbalancer she worked on ‘Opera & Steel’ by Grace Schwindt, among others.   In 2017 she was nominated for the Piket Kunstprijzen.

Direction, choreography and interpretation: João Dinis Pinho and Claire Hermans