What Remains

Ultima Vez

International Committee Selection

In a quiet, physical dialogue between children and elderly dancers, this performance explores the fragile thresholds of life – where beginnings and endings blur in gestures of care and quiet resistance. Roles shift, the fragile becomes strong, the invisible visible. The ageing body, often forgotten, reclaims its space on stage – not through virtuosity, but through tenderness, memory, and shared time. A meditation in motion on what fades, what lingers, and what remains.

What Remains is a story about beginning and ending, about standing at the furthest point of a line in life, the point at which you start out as a child or end as an older person. The poetry of changing as a human being, making memories and fearing their loss. In What Remains, Zoë Demoustier brings two generations together on the stage: children starting out in life, and older dancers leaving life behind them. The outcome of this encounter is a physical, dancing interplay between young and old that exposes the ephemeral body. Indeed there is also beauty in losing, in the gradual lightening of the body’s archive. In a movement language in which roles can reverse, young and old alike are powerful in their vulnerability. Who cares for whom? They find one another in the similarities and the differences. On the stage there are three older people, a young adult and six children.

There is an age difference of 70 years between the youngest and the oldest participant. The choice of a mixed group of children and older people is the logical consequence of the theme: the exploration of the movement that takes place between young bodies, still ‘undescribed’ by experiences; and ageing bodies ‘filled’ with their memories.

★ Guest performance from Belgium

From 12 years

Cast:

Choreography: Zoë Demoustier
Performers: Misha Demoustier, Jef Stevens, Karin Vyncke, Irene Schaltegger, Alice Monserez, Chizzy Chinaedu, Charlotte Maes, Kyora Kaiwa Stoffer, Luwe Van Gucht & Charlie Van Cauwenberghe
Dramaturgy: Danielle van Vree
Artistic Advice: Annemie Boonen, Misha Demoustier, Oihana Azpillaga & Wim Vandekeybus
Costume & research: Annemie Boonen
Music & sound design: Misha Demoustier & Rint Mennes
Music research: Misha Demoustier & Sebastiaan Wets
Sound on tour: Rint Mennes
Light & set design: Thomas Glorieux
Light advice: Varja Klosse
Light on tour: Thomas Glorieux / Benjamin Verbrugge
Interviews: Yelena Schmitz
Production: Ultima Vez
Co-production: STUK Leuven, BRONKS Theater for young audiences, HET LAB Hasselt, Krokusfestival Hasselt
Assistance: Emma Hons, Karlijn Vanoppen, Sarah Migairou Feldman, Dauwke Van Kerckhoven, Chisom Lois Onyebueke Chinaedu
With the support of the Tax Shelter measure of the Belgian Federal Government, Casa Kafka Pictures Tax Shelter empowered by Belfius.
Ultima Vez is supported by the Flemish Community and the Flemish Community Commission of the Brussels-Capital Region
Thanks to: Kristien De Coster, Inne Goris, Kaïs Ung, Albertine Guilloteau Croizé, Hélène De Vrieze, Tom Herbots, Lana Van Dierdonck, Lore Stessel, Aaron Wouters & Klaartje Lambrechts

What Remain's visit to bibu has received funding from Flanders State of the Art