Compagnie THOR / Thierry Smits

Thierry Smits, with his Compagnie Thor, is today among the references of Belgian contemporary dance. In 25 years, the choreographer has asserted an artistic approach that is in many respects unconventional, frequently controversial, and often against the current trends. Alternating pure dance shows and more performative pieces, his creations explore the relationship to the body - an object of desire, pleasure, and finiteness -, which he considers today more than ever as a political space, as "the only territory of freedom that remains for us".

Since the launch of his company in 1990, Thierry Smits has created more than thirty dance shows. Among these, Eros deleterious (1991), Red Rubber Balls (1999), D'ORIENT (2005), V.-Nightmares (2007) and To the Ones I Love (2010). His creations, characterized by a keen sense of image, summon aesthetics that are sometimes pop and queer, often provocative, and sometimes refined and contemporary. Whatever their form, his proposals demonstrate a constant technical rigor and gestural creativity, an obvious frankness and generosity.

Compagnie Thor brings together top-level artists from around the world. In addition to the choreographic and scenic richness of its shows, it is also thanks to their talent that it has gained its reputation and has been able to multiply its tours in Belgium and abroad: in France, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, Hungary, Croatia, the United States, the Middle East and North Africa, in places and festivals such as the Barbican in London, Trafó in Budapest, the Schriittmacher Festival in Aachen, the Opera de Rouen, the BIPOD Festival in Beirut, the Teatro de la Ciudad in Mexico or the prestigious Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York.