324 mountains between us by Femke Gyselinck & Anushka Chkheidze

Europalia nodigde de Georgische elektronische artiest Anushka Chkheidze en de Belgische danseres en choreografe Femke Gyselinck uit voor een nieuwe creatie. In haar werkt zoekt Femke Gyselinck een nauwe verbinding tussen expressieve, onspectaculaire bewegingen en livemuziek, in combinatie met een boude maar bescheiden performativiteit. Anushka Chkheidze zit momenteel in de masteropleiding Muziek in Utrecht en wint de laatste jaren aan bekendheid. Haar geluid evolueert doorheen de stijlen terwijl ze vormen van ambient en andere avontuurlijke elektronische muziek verkent. De combinatie van het gedanste vocabulaire van Femke en Anushka’s vertaling van polyfonie resulteert in een unieke creatie.

Speciale dank aan: Choreography/dance Femke Gyselinck / Music Anushka Chkheidze / Scenography Aslı Çiçek / Costumes Nel Maertens, Veronika Vimpelova / Dramaturgy Steven Michel / Light design Elke Verachtert / Sound Milan Van Doren / Stage Lien Agten / Commission/coproduction europalia georgia / Executive production GRIP / International distribution Line Rousseau, Marion Gauvent/A Propic / Coproduction Perpodium / Residencies workspacebrussels, pianofabriek, kunstencentrum nona, corso, December Dance , Théâtre Varia, GC De Kriekelaar - Schaarbeek / With the support of Vlaamse Overheid, Tax Shelter Maatregel van de Belgische Federale Overheid via Cronos Invest

Anushka Chkheidze is an upcoming Georgian electronic music producer. As a child she went to music school and sang folk songs in the youth ensemble, and aged 11, Anushka started singing at a small village chapel. Her electronic music is deeply influenced by those childhood years. The work of the 23-year-old producer includes music for film and theatre. On debut album ‘Halfie’ a completely different side of herself is evident, playing around with ambient and classical influences. While second album ‘Move 20-21’ is a mind journey through space and time

Femke Gyselinck (Belgium, 1983) is a dancer and choreographer based in Brussels. She graduated at P.A.R.T.S in 2006.
After her studies she worked as a freelance dancer with Eleanor Bauer, Andros Zins-Browne and Esther Venrooy. She participated in the Solo Commissioning Project by Deborah Hay in 2007. From 2010 till 2018 she worked as an artistic assistant of Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker/Rosas. In her own work she focusses on relating expressive movements closely to text and music in combination with a bold but humble performativity. In 2017 she collaborated with her brother, Lander Gyselinck, a drummer on Flamer. Together with Romina Lischka, renowned gamba player, she made Lachrimae or Seven Tears to the music of John Dowland & Annelies Van Parys and L’Echo Du Danube to the music of Johannes Schenck. She collaborated in 2019 with musician Liesa Van der Aa for the piece Play. Also in 2019, together with Bryana Fritz & Jasmin Gins Posada she created the piece Pigmalion, with music by Rameau and performed live by Apotheosis Orchestra. In 2020 she worked on the choreography for the opera Faust Szenen to the music of Schumann and directed by Julian Rosefeldt, a production of Opera Vlaanderen and Montpellier Opera.

In March 2020 the performance Moving Ballads premiered. In this project she explores unheard-of relationships between pop music and contemporary dance, lyrics and lyricism, depiction and imagination, choreography and improvisation. 2022 saw the premiere of Letters 2 Dance, a choreographic elaboration of Gymnastics of the Mind (2020), a research project inspired by the book ABECEDA (1926). She is a member of the faculty of P.A.R.T.S and is teaching at the bachelor Performing Arts at KASK & Conservatorium in Ghent.

Every two years, europalia compiles a diverse artistic programme focusing on a country or a theme. For four months, in Belgium and its neighbouring countries, europalia, in collaboration with a wide network of cultural partners, presents a biennial with a myriad of artistic and socio-cultural projects that bring together visual arts, performing arts, film, music, literature and debate to stimulate an exchange of ideas. Newly commissioned projects and artistic residencies hold a central place in the programme, which engenders a unique interaction between heritage and art. This autumn, europalia dedicates an arts festival to Georgia!