Like me more like me

For Like me more like me, Thomas Hauert collaborates with Scott Heron, a familiar face from the New York avant-garde scene. Although the two artists create very different work – Thomas is recognized for his improvisation-based choreographic language while Scott makes singular performances layered with camp – they share a mistrust of social and aesthetic conventions, as well as a love of intense and innocent physicality. To belong to a community is one of the deepest human needs. Having both started dancing as kids in their family living room, on opposite sides of the Atlantic, they know how a private world can develop out of, or outside of, surrounding culture. From this point of view, they challenge the hierarchical oppositions between mind and body, reason and emotion, centre and margin that organize and reproduce society. They take as a starting point the idea of “twoness,” this smallest and most emotional form of human connection. Tuning in to the cellular, sensorial, psychical and metaphysical levels, they celebrate intuition and empathy as meaningful sources of artistic creation and reception. Confronting sensibilities, they play with each other, one for each other, and for the audience, maybe in search of completeness.

The piece has been nominated in the category “Outstanding Contemporary Dance Presentation” at the Tribute to the Classical Arts Awards 2014 in New Orleans.