FRANK

“We are in an alien world. Only awkward movement is possible.” (Bayo Akomolafe) Choreographer Cherish Menzo examines the figure of the monster in FRANK—short for Frankenstein. More than (re)producing a physical or visual portrayal of the monster, she is researching the monstrous as an embodiment of beliefs and narratives that terrify and horrify, and yet also attract us. Distortion is a choreographic leitmotif used to generate movement material and as a tool to devour the dance and loosen its structure. Cherish Menzo investigates the action of decay and how something gradually breaking down and becoming less or worse can affect one’s gestures. The performance space fabulates on the Baka Gorong, a place located at the back of the former plantations and in front of the wetlands, where enslaved people in Suriname secretly went to carry out Winti rituals – demonized under Dutch colonial rule – and to consider fleeing. She is joined by Omagbitse Omagbemi, Mulunesh, and Malick Cissé—performing artists from different generations—to construct a performance between the ritual, the apocalypse, and the carnival, where narrated identities are challenged, where flesh can deviate and be corrupted until it bursts and becomes unbearable. The dancers express their standing in the world with incoherent, broken-down movement in a scenery that collapses around them. In an increasingly unstable world of hiccups and unlikely events, often gruesome and violent, we are reminded of early horror movies and this eerie feeling, the flicker in the dark.• Cherish Menzo (°1988, The Netherlands) is a choreographer and dancer, who lives in Brussels and Amsterdam. In 2013 she graduated from The Urban Contemporary (JMD) at the Hogeschool voor de Kunsten in Amsterdam. Cherish has appeared in the work of Lisbeth Gruwez, Jan Martens, Nicole Beutler, as well as collaborations with the likes of Akram Khan, Ula Sickle, Olivier Dubois and Eszter Salamon. Her powerful movement language also comes into its own in her own work, which tours internationally. In 2019 Cherish worked on JEZEBEL, a dance performance inspired by the phenomenon Video Vixen from the hip-hop clips of the 90s. In May 2022, DARKMATTER premiered at Kunstenfestivaldesarts, a duet in which she and Camilo Mejía Cortés search for ways to detach their bodies from a forced perception. Cherish is currently touring with FRANK (premiere May 2025, Kunstenfestivaldesarts, Brussels). In continuation of JEZEBEL and DARKMATTER, distortion is once again one of the main ingredients to generate material. With JEZEBEL, Cherish received the Amsterdam FRINGE and FRINGE International Bursary Awards 2019. JEZEBEL was selected in 2020 for both the Dutch and Flemish Theaterfestival. In 2022, she received the prestigious Charlotte Köhler award. DARKMATTER was selected for both the Belgian Theater Festival and its Dutch counterpart (2023), receiving the BNG Bank Theater Prize and the Dutch Drama Jury prize for best direction. In 2024, she received the Gieskes-Strijbis Podium Prize, the most prestigious performing arts award for mid-career artists in the Netherlands. For her artistic work, she is interested in the transformation of the body on stage and in the embodiment of different physical images. Implementing distortion, decay, and dissonance, Cherish attempts to detach bodies from forced perceptions and their daily corporeal realities.