CRONIQUES • COPENHAGEN DANCES
★★★★☆☆
Photo: Camille Leprince
REVIEW CRONIQUES: CONTEMPORARY DANCE MARINATED IN BRUTAL VIOLENCE AND MYTHICAL PUNISHMENT
Peeping Tom has arrived at Østre Gasværk with *Chroniques*—a fast-paced, dark, and visually intense performance in which the space’s raw, rustic character becomes an active participant.
On the surface, it all resembles a kind of evolutionary man-bashing. Bundles of muscle in constant combat. Brutal violence. Raw masculinity. But of course, there is meaning behind the madness.
Photo: Camille Leprince
The performance unfolds like a fragmented, almost nightmarish dream.
The hour-and-a-half-long choreography is based on a conceptual narrative about being trapped in an attempt to defy immortality. The intro hints at a connection to the myth of Sisyphus—the cunning king who tricked the gods and, as punishment, had to roll a giant boulder up a mountain, only for it to roll back down, forcing him to start over—day in and day out for all eternity. Not the coolest way to be immortal.
Photo: Camille Leprince
Peeping Tom’s battle against immortality evokes a buzzing, thumping ADHD energy set in a trashed no-man’s-land where time and logic are suspended. From here, it explodes.
Peeping Tom goes all in on a kind of choreographic overheating—a desperate energy where the dancers move as if caught in a collective nervous breakdown. They throw themselves around in aggressive sequences, duel in rock-like formations, shoot, fall, die—and rise again. Again and again.
Photo: Camille Leprince
The body language is violent, angular, and deliberately ungraceful. Far from classical grace. Yet technically impressive. The bodies snap, twist, and collide as if taken from a Tarantino film.
A constant choreography of destruction, created by Gabriela Carizzo, where the line between being killed and self-destruction is constantly blurred. A peculiar energy, where the violence also takes on a boyish quality and carries a hint of playfulness.
Photo: Camille Leprince
The music reinforces the hazy atmosphere. Horn sections, keyboards, and heavy sound effects that most of all evoke a cinematic soundtrack. One misses musical highlights—but at the same time, the diffuse quality fits well with the performance’s dream logic.
In the end, it all comes together in a surprising, almost comradely conclusion to the strains of “I Can’t Stop Loving You.” A strange, soft, and humorous landing after an hour and a half of bombardment.
Chroniques is a cross between sci-fi, action film, and surreal dance theater. The result is more of a state of mind than a narrative. An uncompromising and visually powerful dance experience that may not always hit the mark—but dares to be violent, strange, and captivating.
Avant-garde with an edge—and four stars from GOT TO SEE THIS
