JÈrÙme Bel The show must go on

"Is theater really what you see ON STAGE, or is it what YOU SEE on stage? Bel's work is genuine, it is exciting, smart, and great, great fun."
—Dance Europe

This wry and witty international hit comes from one of the top young dance innovators in Europe.

Associated Press writer Claudia La Rocco loved the show when it premiered in New York, calling it "terrifically entertaining—at times ridiculous, at times poignant and always deeply humanistic." You can read her review in the Chicago Tribune; see the link below. Among the young dance innovators in Europe, JÈrÙme Bel is one of the leading figures in a new generation of conceptual choreographers. But Bel's conceptualism is definitely not the vapid, navel-gazing variety. Instead, he brings keen wit and wry twists to his anti-spectacles.

Bel's international hit The show must go on blurs the dividing line between performers and audiences—those who make and do, and those who watch. He filters this concept through the common cultural lens of classic rock songs. The shared nostalgia and individualized meanings that these songs transmit set up each ironic nuance of interpretation. Acting as a DJ, Bel presides over his turntables and his company of 20 performers, spinning hit after hit as the dancers' actions delightfully subvert our expectations. The dancers also appear as a very human yet subtly provocative art installation, introducing fresh notions of what constitutes performance today. Here you'll see the hoary theatrical catchphrase "the show must go on" in a decidedly new light.


support credits

Dance season presented by Huntington.

This performance funded in part by the Cultural Services of the French Embassy, Association FranÁaise d'Action Artistique, and the National Dance Project (NDP) of the New England Foundation for the Arts.

Major support for the performing arts season provided by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.

Additional season support provided by the Ohio Arts Council and the Corporate Annual Fund of the Wexner Center Foundation.