by Dam Van Huynh

Pina Bausch meets Bill Viola, then along comes Dam Van Huynh. An intense, beautiful and profound work once seen never forgotten.

Đẹp is the Vietnamese word for beautiful. With his latest dance work, the UK based choreographer Dam Van Huynh explores influences from his Southeast Asian heritage. In Vietnamese culture, death is also a form of rebirth. When a person dies, the family and community enact rituals that will enable the deceased to pass into another realm, a higher state of being.

The work sees a shift in Van Huynh’s movement language as it delves ever deeper into the nature of the human condition. The dancers in Đẹp are nude for a purpose. Fragile and vulnerable, their nudity literally strips them bare. Disrobed, free of distraction, their movement begins at the point where the mind transcends the physical self.

Amplified and tracked by Martyna Poznanska’s numinous score, the movement in Ð?P invites the audience to let go, reaching ever closer to the feeling of being alive.

Winner of the Asian Arts Award for Best Directing 2018

★★★★ The Observer
“We, and the dancers are forcefully confronted with our frailty, but also, ultimately, with our capacity for regeneration. Life goes on.”

★★★★ Seeing Dance
“A powerful work with a terrible beauty all of its own.”

★★★★ Broadway Baby
“A raw and visceral production that transcends the need for verbal communication, Dep looks behind closed doors and stands defiantly in its appreciation of human fragility.”

Supported using public funding by Arts Council England.

Please note: This work contains full frontal nudity and strobe effects.

Age recommendation: 16+

VENUE: AUDITORIUM, EXETER PHOENIX

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