Dare To Bare

This April Warwick Arts Centre welcomes controversial dance show from Canadian Dave St-Pierre Company as part of the International Dance Festival Birmingham.
Un peu de tendress bordel de merde! (A little tenderness for crying out loud!) is about the search for love and the human form. Using humour to tackle taboo subjects, the most controversial moment occurs when the 20 dancers, stark naked save their blond wigs, frolic in the auditorium “clambouring” over audiences, sitting on their laps and generally assaulting their senses. The piece then goes on to investigate the gulf between violence and tenderness in contemporary society, with a comedic female narrator leading the audience on this emotional journey. At various points in the piece, the performers either leap with a primal urgency, or lie crumpled and defeated on the ground, before climaxing in a breathtakingly beautiful and moving finale. It is a rare opportunity to see some of the most revolutionary dance theatre in decades that truly breaks down the fourth wall.
Award-winning Canadian choreographer Dave St-Pierre has been a major force on the contemporary dance scene for over five years. With his latest work he follows in the footsteps of his mentor, the German choreographer Pina Bausch — who once called him her ‘pornographic illegitimate child’. Audience members of Un peu de tendresse bordel de merde! at Sadler’s Wells referred to St-Pierre as “the shockmeister of dance theatre” and “the Lars Von Trier of the dance world”.
Warwick Arts Centre is delighted to be part of International Dance Festival Birmingham (IDFB) for the first time, offering Coventry audiences a unique chance to experience the festival at their local venue.  Taking place from 23 April to 19 May, IDFB is a major biennial festival co-produced by DanceXchange and Birmingham Hippodrome presenting a world-class programme of performance and participation in theatres and public spaces across Birmingham and the West Midlands.  It is one the UK’s biggest dance festivals and kicks off a fantastic summer of culture in the West Midlands.
Take the opportunity to see the internationally renowned Dave St-Pierre’s Un peu de tendresse bordel de merde! at Warwick Arts Centre. As the ‘marmite’ of dance the dance world, challenge yourself to experience it for yourself and make up your own mind!