Panama Pictures / Go tell the women (we are leaving)

Dance, text, acting, music and scenography: everything unfolds in Panama Pictures’ performances. Choreographer Pia Meuthen creates stories that rise above the purely textual in the company’s theatrical dance productions, which are often inspired by literary works. She reveals thoughts, crawls into the characters’ heads and exposes images of them and their innermost emotions. She does this with sophistication and restraint, focusing keenly on aesthetics, with the aim of creating an absorbing but accessible, recognisable, almost filmatic landscape for the audience. Personal input from the participants themselves is an important element of Meuthen’s work.

Pia Meuthen (b. 1972, Germany) studied dance at Hogeschool voor de Kunsten in Amsterdam and Fontys Dansacademie in Tilburg. She has been active as a freelance choreographer since 1998. With her own company, Panama Pictures, founded in 2002, she is constantly presenting new productions and co-productions. Her production “Unmade beds” was nominated for a VSCD award as best production in 2005.

"Go tell the women (we're leaving)" is part of Europa 2012 at Dansens Hus, a varied event presenting choreographers who will be setting trends in 2012. Along with their most talented colleagues, they will be the ones to lead the way in the decade that has just begun.

Rumour has it that 2012 will be an especially important year for the human race, and perhaps these young choreographers will also be important. They share an ability to grab hold of ideas and images associated with interpersonal relations, and shake them around. When the dust settles there will be a good chance that we will be able to see things in a new way.