Holland Festival - Gisèle Vienne - Extra Life

Strong visual experience

How do we use our senses during a life-changing experience? In Extra Life, you follow a brother and sister who meet again after 20 years, following a traumatic event in their youth. As adults, they try to understand this event and restore their bond.

The performance is a strong visual experience in which past, present and future merge. With movement, abstract dance, music, light and lasers an emotional and impressive performance is created.

With this performance, director and choreographer Gisèle Vienne wants to show how different layers of an experience – such as memories, feelings, fantasies and expectations – come together in one moment.

The performance is inspired by the work of philosopher Elsa Dorlin, who wrote about self-defense and violence. Vienne also worked intensively with her dancers and actors, such as Katia Petrowick (known from Crowd , Holland Festival 2018), Theo Livesey and Adèle Haenel (previously seen in L'Étang , Holland Festival 2021).

Vienne often explores how large systems, such as patriarchy and capitalism, influence how we perceive the world. In Extra Life she uses memories and imagination to make this tangible on stage.

Please note: the performance uses flashing laser light.