“The endless chatter in your head, jumping in your mind from one thought to another, like a monkey jumping from tree to tree”

Lisi Estaras developed a choreographic pattern of dance phrases and frames that are the result of associative thoughts and impulses. For this production she worked together with professional dancers Nicolas Vladyslav and Anna Calsina and three Platform-K-dancers, Kobe Wyffels, Hannah Bekemans and Fernando Amado who have down syndrome. Lisi translates the associations and improvisations into an abrupt and energetic dance language. She calls this way of working/thinking the ‘monkey mind’.

The production Monkey Mind was Lisi’s first collaboration with people with a disability and proved to be a key .

Is it possible to really make contact? Really connect?

The creation was inspired by the book ‘Autoportret’ by Eduard Levé In this book, Levé sets out his entire life, more or less at random, in a string of thoughts, statements and observations: “I am not beautiful. I am not ugly. I will never seduce somebody who wears Birkenstocks. I don’t like the big toe. Maybe I have talked to somebody who had maybe killed somebody. I like to say thank you. I would like to communicate without using words or gestures and just perceive everything that was in the brain of my interlocutor.”

Visually, Lisi felt inspired by the work of several photographers. Especially the raw, physical and sometimes absurd images of Diane Arbus were a source of inspiration for the visual language that she developed for her dancers.

Monkey Mind is an intensive encounter between five dancers. They go beyond the expected and do not shy away from breaking conventions or even taboos.