Arno Schuitemaker

Work

If You Could See Me Now

In a time of unrest and turbulence, movement is more than motion—it is how we hold ourselves together. Three performers reshape a chilled-out dance into mesmerizing wave-like motion, until everything morphs into electrifying energy. Responding to a world that challenges our understanding of endurance and adaptability, their movements become a declaration of power: the power to push forward, to find continuity amidst friction, and to assert autonomy.

At the height of their sweaty exertion, the performers’ unstoppable flow reinvents itself in luminous, ever-changing impressions. If You Could See Me Now, with seeming simplicity, urges another, closer look. How do we keep going? How do we realign and refocus?

From ecstasy to turmoil, through an intensifying build-up and its fracturing, the performance explores the body’s intimate dialogue with change, reconnecting us with a sense of shared momentum and the willingness to let each movement, each step, define the next. This is resilience as a force against stagnation — and a refusal to be silenced, until silence fills our space and becomes our own. And it is here, in the charged hush following the intensity, that the piece finds and underscores its resonance, even beyond the stage.

Press
"It is no exaggeration to say that these kinds of experiences will determine the future of the theatre. (....) In this liberating dance, performance everything falls into place." — Alexander Hiskemuller, Trouw

"Just when you think it's reached its peak, it brushes against a deep, beautiful, and subtle silence, going beyond the trance itself (…) This is a rare experience. Even sitting in a theater seat, you feel it as much as you see it." — Sceneweb.fr

"A magnificent performance, tactfully playing with your emotions." — Mirjam van der Linden, de Volkskrant

Find the dates and the credits below.

Photo: Piotr Jaruga

Photo: Piotr Jaruga

Photo: Piotr Jaruga

Photo: Piotr Jaruga

Photo: Piotr Jaruga

Calendar

Press

"It is no exaggeration to say that these kinds of experiences will determine the future of the theatre. (....) In this liberating dance, performance everything falls into place. " - Alexander Hiskemuller, Trouw

"A magnificent performance, tactfully playing with your emotions." - Mirjam van der Linden, de Volkskrant

"It is Schuitemaker's great strength to think the art of performance in all its components through and to shape it in an experimental setup, which—in the end—exudes the strongest sensuality, originality, and bliss." - Alexandra Karabelas, Tanznetz

Credits

Concept and creation: Arno Schuitemaker
Performers: Stein Fluijt, Ivan Ugrin, Mark Christoph Klee or Emilia Saavedra
Dramaturgy: Guy Cools
Music composition: Wim Selles
Lighting design: Vinny Jones
Costumes: Inge de Lange
Technique: Natasja Giebels, Vincent Beune

If You Could See Me Now is a production by SHARP/ArnoSchuitemaker in coproduction with HELLERAU – Europäisches Zentrum der Künste (Dresden, Germany), O Espaço Do Tempo - Associação Cultura (Montemor-o-Novo, Portugal), CN D Centre national de la danse (Pantin, France), KLAP Maison pour la danse (Marseille, France) and Tafelhalle im KunstKulturQuartier (Nuremberg, Germany). The performance is created with contributions by Performing Arts Fund NL, Fonds 21, VSBfonds and Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds.

After After: "Masterful", Critic's choice Theaterkrant →