©Robbrecht Desmet
Femke Gyselinck/ GRIP i.s.m. Lander Gyselinck - Figures of Speech
16.03.2026 — 27.03.2026
Residency with the dancers of Figures of Speech.
Rhythm connects us inextricably to the world. It is everywhere – in our steps, in our language, in our emotions, in life itself. Since ancient times, when it served as a mnemonic aid for reciting poetry, rhythm has been used to bring people together: from the chanting of monks to a folk dance cadence.
For her new creation, Femke Gyselinck forges family ties with brother and musician Lander Gyselinck. They once created a duet – the 2016 show Flamer – within which they reversed roles: with Femke as drummer and Lander as dancer. This time they invite seven dancers and four musicians on stage and they each set the rhythm for their own discipline. At a time when dance and culture are under pressure they make a bold statement committing to a group creation: ‘the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.’
In this performance, rhythm is much more than just a component of the music. It is the foundation on which music and dance come together. The patterns of sounds and silences aid in remembering and singing, playing, or drumming in a group. And they make dancing possible.
CONCEPT & CHOREOGRAPHY: Femke Gyselinck MUSICAL COMPOSITION: Lander Gyselinck CREATION & PERFORMANCE: Amanda Barrio Charmelo, Mei-Li Dong Páez, Femke Gyselinck, Tarek Halaby, Jb Portier, Thomas Vantuycom, Sue-Yeon Youn MUSIC: Lander Gyselinck, Mien Heyvaert, Hui-Chi Li, Wouter Van Asselbergh and/or Jacob Bousset, Mariana Miranda LIGHTS: Elke Verachtert SOUND ENGINEER: Milan van Doren, Jo Heijens SCENOGRAPHY: Aslı Çiçek PROJECT ASSISTENCE SCENOGRAPHY: Olivia de Bree & Francesca Desantis COSTUMES: Miguel Peñaranda Olmeda - olmedam DRAMATURGY: Steven Michel PHOTOGRAPHY, TEASERS, TRAILERS: Robbrecht Desmet DANCE INTERNSHIP: Jacob Bousset PRODUCTION: GRIP (Francisca Alves, Hanne Doms, Anneleen Hermans, Rudi Meulemans, Klaartje Oerlemans, Jennifer Piasecki, Sylvie Svanberg, Nele Verreyken, Kato Wilms) INTERNATIONAL DISTRIBUTION: A propic - Line Rousseau, Marion Gauvent CO-PRODUCTION: Concertgebouw Brugge & KAAP / Dans in Brugge, kunstencentrum nona, Vlaams Cultuurhuis de Brakke Grond, NEXT festival - La rose des vents – scène nationale Lille Métropole – Villeneuve d’Ascq, VIERNULVIER, Perpodium RESIDENCIES: Vaisseau Mère, P.A.R.T.S., Ictus, Ultima Vez, STUK, VIERNULVIER, KVS, De Brakke Grond, Concertgebouw Brugge THANKS TO Kaaitheater WITH THE FINANCIAL SUPPORT OF: the Flemish Government de Vlaamse Overheid, Tax Shelter of the Belgian Federal Government, de Vlaamse Gemeenschapscommissie (the Flemish Community Commission)
Femke Gyselinck (°1983, België) is a Brussels-based dancer and choreographer. After graduating from P.A.R.T.S. in 2006, she worked as a freelance dancer with, among others, Eleanor Bauer, Andros Zins-Browne and Esther Venrooy. She was part of Deborah Hay’s Solo Commissioning Project. From 2010 to 2018, she was the artistic assistant to Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker/Rosas before pursuing her own choreographic career.
Her work intricately weaves dance with music, balancing subtle performativity with expressive movement. She collaborates across musical genres, from electronic (Anushka Chkheidze) to baroque (B’Rock Orchestra, Romina Lischka & Hathor Consort) and jazz (Hendrik Lasure, Adia Vanheerentals). She has also worked with Platform-K, a company for dancers with disabilities, and Opera Ballet Vlaanderen (OBV). She is also a faculty member at P.A.R.T.S., where she contributes to training the next generation of dance artists.
In 2018, she created the duet Flamer together with brother and musician Lander, a drummer, composer and producer (STUFF., LABtrio, Lander & Adriaan, …). In collaboration with Romina Lischka & the Hathor Consort, she created 2 dance performances: Lachrimae or Seven Teares to music by John Dowland & Annelies Van Parys and then L'Echo Du Danube to music by Johannes Schenck.
She provided the choreography for the performance Court of Choice part I: PLAY(2019) by musician Liesa Van der Aa & One Trick Pony. Also in 2019, together with dancers Bryana Fritz & Jasmin Gins Posada, she created the mini-opera Pigmalion, set to music by Rameau and performed live by Apotheosis conducted by Korneel Bernolet.
In the short and intimate solo ERATO (2019), Femke focuses on the comfort, scattering, passion, joy, beauty that music can offer and its ability to express the unspeakable. Set to music by Palmistry, Gwilym Gold and Hiatus Kaiyote, she fuses the music and physical expression of her dancing body into one voice.
In 2020, Femke created the musical dance performance Moving Ballads in which she explores unheard-of relationships between pop music and contemporary dance, lyrics and lyricism, portrayal and imagination, choreography and improvisation.
Also in 2020, Femke worked on the choreography for the opera Faust Szenen to music by Schumann and directed by Julian Rosefeldt, a production of Opera Vlaanderen & Montpellier Opera (June 2022).
In 2021, she collaborated again with Liesa Van der Aa & One Trick Pony and signed for the choreography of Court of Choice part II: ENTRE-CÔTES
Letters 2 Dance, a creation of her own, premiered at in March 2022. Letters 2 Dance is a choreographic elaboration of Gymnastics of the Mind (2020), a research project inspired by the book ABECEDA (1926). Through a dance-like dissection of the alphabet, Femke explored the relationship between movement and typography, between dance and letter images. It resulted in her own dance alphabet Character, published and distributed in collaboration with Koenig Books (November 2023).
In 2023, she created Change of Plans, a musical dance performance co-produced by GRIP and Platform-K, in which Femke shares the stage with dancers Zanne Boon and Oskar Stalpaert and musician-composers Hendrik Lasure and Adia Vanheerentals.
Also in 2023, 324 mountains between us premiered, a collaboration with musician Anushka Chkheidze, at the invitation of europalia georgia. In 324 mountains between us, they show how Femke's danced vocabulary and Anushka's electronic compositions can sometimes bridge the distance between them and sometimes just increase that distance.
In January 2025, Torment of Hearts premiered, a production with baroque ensemble B'Rock Orchestra. Torment of Hearts is a dance performance that seeks to embrace the idea of loneliness.
She is currently working on Figures of Speech (premiering April 8, 2026, Concertgebouw Brugge), a new collaboration with her brother and musician Lander Gyselinck. This time they invite seven dancers and four musicians on stage and they each set the rhythm for their own discipline.
Femke Gyselinck is one of GRIP’s artistic directors, alongside Jan Martens, Cherish Menzo, and Steven Michel, shaping contemporary dance practices.