2025

Belgian choreographer Ugo Dehaes has been exploring for several years the complex relationship between dance and technology. In Moving Skin, his new production for 2025, he embarks on a journey rooted in the breathtaking complexity of the human body.

In Moving Skin, Ugo takes his audience on a fascinating expedition: he makes skin dance, explores the mechanisms of our skeleton, rebuilds muscles, and attempts to inanimate materials to life. He tries to build the perfect dancer, which makes him
asks himself: what is a perfect body?

Moving Skin draws inspiration from the past and embraces the future. It is a tribute to the timeless fascination with the human body and a paean to the intrinsic beauty, hidden within it. At the same time, the performance takes us into an unexplored territory of technological progress, where human creativity and artificial intelligence become inseparable partners on stage.

“I have never seen anything like this before. Dehaes combines robotics, dance, satire and philosophy and has created a truly unsettling piece of theatre. Perhaps the real monsters are human beings, after all.”
★★★★★ northwestend.com

 

“Hi Ugo,

The image of the dissections by Vesalius (1514-1564) works on my imagination in combination with your world of robots and latex on a big table.

Working on the music of Simple Machines was fun. I always compose with samples of found objects and diy instruments. You came up with the possibility of controlling robots and motors to trigger physical objects. I look forward to go further in this for Moving Skin.

For Simple Machines I started from the idea that the music is the result of a digestion process: a recording of acoustic instruments is edited analog, then cut and edited digitally, then put on tape for minor manipulations, … . By combining techniques a physical kneading of sound is created, with an organic result. I look forward to go through a sculpting process again for Moving Skin.” (Wannes, 29/02/2024)