Masquerade is inspired by Freud’s interpretation of dreams and the Surrealist movement of the mid 20th century and its fascination with the subconscious, eroticism, death and the mystery of time. On an excursion into the inner spheres of the sleeping mind, the intergenerational company of six dancers turns bone structures liquid and de- & re-construct bodies and their secrets.

Maresa von Stockert has collaborated with renowned SFX artist John Schoonraad who has created delicately sculpted faces and prosthetics that are brought to life by the performers and are an integral and intricate part of this stage piece’s physical poetry.

Evoking vivid imagery from the beautifully macabre to the violently sensual, Masquerade invites you to leave the rules of reason behind and dive into a dreamlike world that gives free rein to the choreographer’s « scrupulously focused yet wildly hallucinatory » (Judith Mackrell, The Guardian) imagination.

Running time: 65 minutes

“With its veneer of surrealist art and eclectic references that veer from comedy to melancholy and onto the edge of terror, von Stockert and her team have succeeded in producing a thought-provoking work that is perfectly paced and fascinating, and within it there is a truly captivating gem of a dance. Writing in the ‘Dancing Times’, my friend and collegue, Ian Palmer espoused that ‘Masquerade’ was worth a full constellation of stars and I wholeheartedly concur.”

Graham Watts, Ballet.co.uk  > read the full review

“Maresa von Stockert has a choreographic sensibility that’s all her own, a mix of intellectual and sensory scrupulousness that makes her work strikingly original.”

Judith Mackrell, The Guardian, February 2011

‘This gently warped, oneiric world is filled with an often vigorous physicality … von Stockert’s hallucinatory foray into the subconscious is likely to tickle just about everyone’s fancies.’ 

Donald Hutera, The Times, January 2011

“Assisting Bellmer and his Doll, lustful and corrupt Balthus and Bataille…This show stuck us to the bench like glue…”

Marc Villemain and John Ellingsworth, Book: Over The Channel: Artistes et espace publics transmanche, (in French), Montpellier, 2011