Joy

Joshua Monten

Switzerland

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Thumping, hitting, punching. Bones crack, teeth fly. Is this monstrous brawl a perfect illusion or deliberate physical violence? Joy is a choreographic take on the techniques of stylised stage fighting. Graceful sequences of brutal violence are deconstructed beyond proportion, and unleashed in dialogue with classical music. However, Joy does not glorify violence. Rather, it tries to answer the question: what is its purpose? And why is it that bodily harm inflicted on others is often regarded with a pleasurable shudder and unacknowledged schadenfreude?

Joshua Monten used to be a dancer at Bern Ballet and the Stadttheater Heidelberg, and a guest dancer at Theater Freiburg and the Staatstheater Nürnberg. He has worked with choreographers such as Stijn Celis, Hofesh Shechter, Juha Marsalo, Doug Varone, Irina Pauls, Konstantinos Rigos and Tino Sehgal. Since 2008 he has been a freelance dancer and choreographer and in 2012 he founded his own dance ensemble, whose works have been performed in Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Italy, Brazil, USA and Singapore.