Echte Clichés

Directed by Eric de Kuyper

In the early 90s, a Dutch dance company, ‘t Concern, asked me to join its members in devising a show. They came to me as a filmmaker, because the aim was to come up with a dance-performance that would include moving images. The company consisted of five female dancers and one male dancer. This unusual combination led me to suggest basing the show on the archetypal 1950s housewife and her everyday chores. And setting this against the ballet music of Delibes, Čajkovskij and Glazunov. (I had an aunt who had never been a ballet dancer but who listened to ballet music as she went about doing her housework). The idea was to match each professional female dancer with a non-professional male dancer. The only surviving trace of this show remains its 16mm entr’actes, shown here under the title Echte clichés. Does not every cliché contain a grain of truth to be rediscovered?