Dancers as parts of a sensuous machine

Mette Ingvartsen choreographed a group orgasm on the Klapstuk festival.

To Come, of the Danish choreographer Mette Ingvartsen, is a remarkable show. In the first part, the dancers are wrapped in hermetically fitting, light blue tights. Their bodies can’t be distinguished from each other and the postures they take in are suggestive, to say the least. One performer bends over with his head into the pubic area of another, who in turn is fitting his buttocks in the pelvis of the next person. The group choreography unfolds as a sensuous machine in which all parts fit, a mechanics of pleasure never arriving at satisfaction. These are constructions that arouse but never wear out, that continue to produce an unceasing suggestion.

In the second part, the tights are done away with: a choir lines up on stage and each dancer echoes waves of excitement and orgasm. But here too, there seems to be no ending to the rising and falling movements of their voices. Each climax is nothing but a moment in the fluctuation of never ending pleasure.

In the last part the performers let it all hang out, wildly jiving to energetic big band jazz music. Even though in comparison with the careful choreography of the previous parts, this part almost seems to be an ode to freedom and individual experience, here too patterns emerge quickly. Moreover, it is impossible for the five performers to completely lose themselves in couple dancing. Every couple has to split up and move on continuously, in a completely interchangeable pattern of steps and phrases.

To Come is a performance that unties erotic suggestion from sex roles or direct satisfaction. There is no room for individual pleasure. What is shown here, is a lot more suggestive and unfocused. And it is not restricted to the players: shimmering, it oozes into the house, into the audience’s bodies.   


- Elke Van Campenhout, De Standaard, 2 November 2005 - translated by Tom Hannes -