Menu

If you want, maybe not 

Photo by Jill Bertels

a search for
understanding
whilst often
misunderstanding

a struggle 
for harmony
in a space
tainted by
disharmony

we attempt to
confront our ordeals
in the hope of 
accepting
but not forgetting

If you want, maybe not is an immersive dance production, whereby 10 performers draw the audience further into a troublesome world, tainted by suspicion, friction and ambiguity. Driven by a retro soundtrack, the viewer is invited into an intimate experience of the unfolding struggles. They ask the question ‘how does human interaction work in the face of conflict?’. Through this work, SIDEWARDS play with the lines between dance and theatre with the use of gesture, visceral physicality, vocal expressiveness and bursts of emotionality.


  Created by and with:

  Lead by:
  Ismini Slijper 

  Performed by:
  Isabella Arboleda Tovar,
  Pierre Bastin,
  Beth Emmerson,
  Amalia Guis, Elliot
  Minogue-Stone,
  Pjotr Nuyts, Anna
  Tejero Cirera, Pauline
  Thuriot, Ehren Verrelst
  and Axelle Vienne

Deviating from a traditional performance setting, the audience are guided through a pathway within the space, whereby a number of miniature episodes appear, each with their own nuanced flavour of confrontational interactions.

This performance is made with an audience of young people and adults in mind. As If you want, maybe not unravels, the viewer is sure to be moved by this visually striking, surprisingly touching dance work.

Created during a time of mandatory ‘physical distancing’, wherein our freedom of movement is limited for a greater cause, SIDEWARDS developed the wish to research the ambiguous topic of boundaries. SIDEWARDS noticed that emotional boundaries specifically, can often originate from a form of conflict, whether that be a conflict of interests, within yourself or between people, conflict can create real borders between humans. This piece explores how these various struggles can affect the space between bodies but also how that struggle is often in the hope of finding harmony with one another again.

New Order – Blue Monday

How does it feel

When you treat me like you do

And you’ve laid your hands upon me

And told me who you are?

I thought I was mistaken

And I thought I heard your words

Tell me, how do I feel?

Tell me now, how do I feel?