Practicing

a film by Jeanne van der Horst in collaboration with Rita McBride, Alexandra Waierstall and Fontys Dance Academy

5 February - 28 August

In March 2021, while its doors remained closed during the ongoing lockdown, De Pont organized National Chain 2020 / Social Practices, a project by American artist Rita McBride and German choreographer Alexandra Waierstall with eleven dancers from the Fontys Dance Academy. Suspended at shoulder height in the main hall was a monumental structure, an aluminum grid measuring 25 x 25 meters, through which the dancers moved, remotely guided by Waierstall and her team.
Filmmaker Jeanne van der Horst followed the dancers for a full month and made the film which is currently being shown on a projection screen that now hangs freely in the same space. Her images merge with the rough, jerky shots the dancers themselves made during their rehearsals in McBride’s tremendous structure.