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ABOUT THE WORK
Myth collides with dazzling stagecraft in Wim Vandekeybus’ Infamous Offspring, an explosive new dance-theater epic from Ultima Vez. Greek myths ignite onstage through jaw-dropping physicality, cinematic storytelling, sculptural design, and a pulse-pounding score, as performers embody the chaos, beauty, and fury of gods and their unruly children.
A sensation across Europe, Infamous Offspring reveals Vandekeybus at the height of his powers, fusing dance, cinema, and music into a fierce vision of myth for our time. Having previously presented works at BAM’s Next Wave Festival and the Lincoln Center Festival, Ultima Vez makes its long-awaited NYU Skirball premiere with this audacious and electrifying creation.
Production Guidance:
Infamous Offspring contains theatrical fog and loud music. This production also contains themes like rape and sexual violence.
RUN TIME
This production is approximately 1 hour and 50 minutes.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Wim Vandekeybus is a choreographer, dancer, filmmaker, and photographer whose work has shaped the landscape of contemporary performance for nearly four decades. In the mid-1980s he founded Ultima Vez in Sint-Jans-Molenbeek (Brussels), a company that quickly became a dynamic home for adventurous contemporary dance. Vandekeybus burst onto the international scene with his groundbreaking debut What the Body Does Not Remember (1987), which won a New York Bessie Award for its raw, visceral physicality—a prize he earned again with his second work, Les porteuses de mauvaises nouvelles (1989).
Emerging alongside Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, Meg Stuart, Jan Fabre, and other artists of the so-called “Flemish Wave,” Vandekeybus helped redefine European dance in the 1980s with a language that fused explosive movement, theatrical tension, and cinematic imagery. Over the decades, he has continued to create milestone works that push the boundaries of dance-theater, earning international acclaim for his ability to channel both chaos and beauty through the body in motion.
CREATIVE CREDITS
Direction And Choreography: Wim Vandekeybus
Created With And Performed By: Iona Kewney, Maria Zhi Tortosa Soriano, Lotta Sandborgh, Cola Ho Lok Yee, Samuel Planas, Rakesh Sukesh, Paola Taddeo, Adrian Thömmes, and Hakim Abdou Mlanao
Text: Fiona Benson
Music: Warren Ellis/dirty Three and ILA
Sound Design Film: Arthur Brouns
Artistic Assistant And Dramaturgy: Margherita Scalise
Movement Assistance: Maria Kolegova and Alexandros Anastasiadis
Costume Design: Isabelle Lhoas
Costume Assistance: Susanne Fischer
Stage Design: Wim Vandekeybus
Decor Realisation And Consultancy: Schröder, Pepijn Mesure and KVS
Sound Engineer And Live Video Operator: Schröder
Light Design: Wim Vandekeybus and Benjamin Verbrugge
Light On Tour: Benjamin Verbrugge
Supertitles: Heleen Schepens
Translations: Flavia Casini (Italian), Anne Vanderschueren (French), Alex Stockman & Kim Schepens (Dutch)
Production: Heleen Schepens
Tour Managers: Heleen Schepens and Kenneth Raemaekers
Distribution: Julia Bouhjar
Consultancy On Mythology: Nadia Sels
Thanks To: Jerry Killick, Matteo Principi, and Louis Kubben
Pictures: Wim Vandekeybus and Danny Willems
Production: Ultima Vez
READ THE DIGITAL PROGRAM
SUPPORT
This project is made possible in part with support from the General Delegation of the Government of Flanders to the USA, NYU Gallatin Classics & the Contemporary, NYU Arts & Sciences Department of Classics, Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, and the Harkness Foundation for Dance.
CO-PRODUCTION: Teatro Comunale Di Ferrara, Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg, KVS
With the support of Tax Shelter measure of the Belgian Federal Government, Casa Kafka Pictures Tax Shelter empowered by Belfius. Ultima Vez is supported by the Flemish Community & the Flemish Community Commission of the Brussels Capital Region.
NYU Skirball’s programs are made possible in part with support from the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature; and the Howard Gilman Foundation; Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels; Culture Ireland; The Shubert Foundation; Collins Building Services; General Delegation of the Government of Flanders to the USA; Goethe Institut New York with support from the Foreign Office of the Federal Republic of Germany; Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation; Fan Fox & Leslie R. Samuels Foundation; New England Foundation for the Arts; Harkness Foundation for Dance; and Marta Heflin Foundation; as well as our valued donors through memberships, commissioning, and Allies for Arts Access Fund support.