A Smile without a Cat, the highly acclaimed final performance by the Bachelor Dance students last June, is returning. At GRIP’s request, our students will bring Steven Michel’s choreography back to life as the season opener for NONA on 19 September. And they’ll be performing it twice in one evening.
A Smile without a Cat – inspired by the famous smile of the Cheshire Cat from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland – unfolds as a dance concert of endless build-up: a Muppet-style show of bodies, a cartoon ballet, a derailed recital in which choreography emerges and simultaneously falls apart. An extraordinary 33-minute uppercut, set to the fantastic music of Anna Meredith.
The title is taken from the famous image of the Cheshire Cat from *Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland*, who slowly fades away until only his smile remains. Can an expression survive independently of the figure that gave rise to it?
Just like that lingering smile, the piece stands on a threshold between presence and disappearance, absurdity and strict discipline, animation and exhaustion. What emerges is a choreography of perseverance: bodies that keep moving whilst forms collapse, meanings scatter and structures constantly unravel.
Photo: Marc Wellens