hardcore
alban ovanessian
from 23 to 27 september – 8.00 pm
HARDCORE, Alban Ovanessian’s latest creation, aspires to a queer utopia. A post-emancipation bodily utopia. A utopia in which bodies are at last liberated and asserted. Resilient and heroized bodies that have transcended marginalization. Future bodies. Present bodies.
The stage, transformed into an interactive arena, becomes the site of expression for the four performers – Bissi Adeye, Aaa Biczysko, Elsa Tagawa and Arno Verbruggen – who spread out in constellations of identities and experiences.
In an aesthetic that combines softcore and hardcore, and through a score of movements rooted in effort, repetition and endurance, the performers explore their intimacies and their new capacities for engaging in relations.
A plea for body and identity diversity, HARDCORE projects us individually and collectively into futures, into our presents, and invites us to challenge ourselves: is our society at the very heart of its deconstruction or is it already rising from its ashes?
‘My name is Alban Ovanessian and I am a queer Franco-Armenian dancer, performer and choreographer. Originally from Nîmes, I began my artistic career as a teenager, immersing myself in film sets before working as an assistant to the editor-in-chief of DOUBLE magazine, where I had the opportunity to collaborate with CHANEL, among others.
These early experiences led me to question how the body is represented, which I first explored through the lens of intimacy and expressionism before feeling the need to consider the body as the true object of study.
My training in contemporary dance began at Studio Harmonic and continued at the P.A.R.T.S. institute in Brussels, where I developed my personal work around performative writing.
I then joined the Norrdans company, based in Härnösand, Sweden, for two seasons, where I collaborated with Nicole Beutler, Martin Forsberg, Ludvig Dae, Ioannis Mandafounis and Stina Nyberg. I was also invited to create two choreographic projects: in.through.WATER, a group piece, and rosa.svart.station, a duet co-authored with Rebecka Berchtold.
Since then, I have been working as a freelance performer and artistic collaborator at the intersection of contemporary theatre, performance and visual arts, among others with El Conde de Torrefiel, Maxime Dreesen, Ariadna Girones, Arno Verbruggen, Billy Morgan, Malika Ali and Ugo Woatzi.
In parallel, I develop my own artistic research, including X.DATES, presented in 2025 at La Balsamine (Brussels), and GRIEFhub, commissioned by the ‘In the Mountains’ festival (Berlin) and hosted as a work in progress at the Boghossian Foundation (Brussels).’
Concept – chorégraphy : Alban Ovanessian
Dramaturgy : Aaa Biczysko
Performance : Bissi Adeye, Aaa Biczysko, Elsa Tagawa, Arno Verbruggen
Music : Lulu Muñoz
Musical research : Baptiste Cazaux, Lisa Laurent
Scénography: Anthony Teng Wen Chang
Costume : Rémi Vergnanini
Lighting design and technical coordination: Thibault Rottiers
Delegated production: la Balsamine (Brussels, Be)
Coproduction: La Coop asbl and Shelter Prod, la Balsamine (Brussels, Be), Charleroi danse – center chorégraphique de Wallonie-Bruxelles (Be), Garage 29 (Brussels, Be)
In residence: DANS’ HARMONIE (Brussels, Be), P. A.R.T.S Summer Residencies, La Ménagerie de verre (Paris, Fr) as part of the StudioLab programme
Support : Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles-Bourse de recherche, Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles- Aide à la création, ING et Tax Shelter du gouvernement fédéral belge
Photo : © Nour Beetch