http://www.soit.info

Having been a member of the artistic core of Les Ballets C de la B for more than twelve years, Hans Van Den Broeck founded his own company, SOIT (stay only if temporarily), in 2001. His roles in the company are as director (film work and video) and choreographer. The result is an oeuvre that tacks between the boundaries of dance/performance and video. SOIT is based in Brussels and attracts artists from various backgrounds and nationalities.

In 2006 SOIT was involved in Ulti'mates, a project that originated with Ultima Vez/Wim Vandekeybus and provided like-minded artists with a commercial and production structure. Since 2008, SOIT has received operational subsidies from the Flemish government, giving it the means to set up its own structure with its own production assistant and business manager shared with the company, Peeping Tom.

Although Hans Van den Broeck is a qualified psychologist, he applied to Les Ballets C de la B because of his fascination with movement and film. He started there as a dancer, but soon became part of the production structure, in which artistic work was created independently by individual choreographers. In a style that derives many of its principles from film, he deals with such themes as the impossibility of communication. He went on international tours with productions including How to approach a dog (1992), Everyman (1994), (They feed we) Eat, Eat, Eat (1996), La Sortie (1999) and Lac des Singes (2001) until he finally decided to start his own company.

SOIT’s first creation was a mixture of video projection and live performance, Deed of arrangement (2003). In 2004 SOIT presented its first large-scale production, Almost Dark, a production for six performers on the subconscious of the collective memory. The movement material ranges from the very physical to almost aggressive and consists of several impressive repetitive sequences. The second large-scale creation, En Servicio, premiered at the ImPulsTanz festival in Vienna in 2006. It was a performance for eight dancers propelled by a whole lot of contradictions centred on the theme ‘at the service of’. In between times, Hans Van den Broeck also makes films. Apart from films and stage performances, SOIT has also done various location projects such as Settlement, in which Van den Broeck spent two weeks creating a performance on the theme of ‘settlements’. This project has been presented in Sydney (2007), Harare (2008), Bastia (2008), Vienna (2008) and Wellington (2008). Nomads is a sequel to the Settlement project and shows life in a closed community on the run. Nomad has been presented in Sydney (2008). We Was Them (2009) is the latest stage performance by SOIT, in which five individuals isolate themselves on a deserted, remote domain away from their previous lives and the outside world.