THE DOG DAYS ARE OVER 2.0

‘Open all pores to this gem. And above all, don't forget to breathe.’ wrote the Nieuwsblad in 2014 about THE DOG DAYS ARE OVER. The reviews back then did not lie: this production marked the absolute breakthrough for Jan Martens, with an extensive international tour of more than 100 performances.

In 2025, Jan Martens and GRIP are recreating this successful show with a new cast. Over the past few years, various dance academies took up this choreographic material: for large groups, amateurs or professionals – the work continued to capture the imagination because of its physical challenge and choreographic ingenuity. THE DOG DAYS ARE OVER has become an audience favourite and a landmark among performances that focus on exhaustion and repetitiveness.

The American photographer Philippe Halsman once said: “When you ask a person to jump, his attention is mostly directed toward the act of jumping and the mask falls so that the real person appears.” With THE DOG DAYS ARE OVER Jan Martens took this statement as a starting point and exposed through the jump the person behind the dancer.

In THE DOG DAYS ARE OVER, the dancer is defined as a pure performer, striving after perfection. Subjected to a complex, mathematical, vigorous and exhausting choreography executed in forced uniformity, the eight dancers ultimately slip up. And then their masks fall.

Thanks to its radical choreographic form, THE DOG DAYS ARE OVER revealed the audience’s perception of dancers, choreographers, spectators and the cultural policy at the time. Ten years on, these questions are still very much relevant due to current political and social trends: Where does the thin line between art and entertainment lie? Who are we as an audience when we contemplate the suffering of dancers from the theatre like a bullfight in an arena? Is contemporary dance striptease for the elite? THE DOG DAYS ARE OVER makes the viewer shift in his position: from being merely subjected to the experience to actively reflecting on it.

THE DOG DAYS ARE OVER was selected for The Theatre Festival in Belgium as one of the most important performances of 2014. The jury wrote: ‘The performance possesses the concentration of a breath-taking trip, including clever dramaturgy and fantastic lighting design. The small changes in light, sound or movements also make you look at the bodies differently each time. With this creation, Jan Martens shows his versatility as a promising choreographer. After the more intimate duets, he now opts for mathematical dance patterns that make the dancers suffer. Watching them suffer is also suffering. And it is realisation. To realise that we rush through life senselessly.’

Find the digital evening programme here: https://dogdays.cargo.site/