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 ITCH I 

 short dance film  

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ITCH is a two-piece project of choreographer Aafke de Jong. It consists of ITCH I en ITCH II.

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ITCH I are two short dance films and ITCH II is a live performance in which video is used not only as background for the performance, but as antagonist of the dancer.

 

ITCH I (dance film):

​The 1-minute version of the film ITCH was elected in 2009 as one of the winners of the One Minute Dance Film Contest of the Nederlandse Dansdagen (Dutch Dance Days).

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The longer 4-minute version was nominated for the online SideBySide Festival (Düsseldorf, 2010) and was also played in Athens (Greece) during International Digital Arts Festival in 2011.

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For this nomination Aafke, together with four other international artists from South Korea, Great Britain, Germany and Brazil) was invited to come to Düsseldorf to tell about the creation of their films. Also she showed a short performance in which she talked about the way she uses elements of Balinese dance in her own contemporary pieces.
 

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Multi-instrumentalist and composer Jaap Berends made the soundtrack using a.o. digital gamelan samples.

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ITCH I is about the ambigue relationship between what we choose to share with the world outside and what we prefer to keep for ourselves. This choice sometimes causes a discrepancy between our inner thoughts and outer actions and can be felt in our bodies and shows trough our skin. 

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ITCH I expresses this through a virtual duet between the dancer and video images, that seem to control him. What happens within our body when we feel we have to choose between your own needs and desires and those of the world outside – society, family, religion and culture?

Concept & choreography Aafke de Jong 

Dance Jason Gwen 

Video Erwin van Deutekom 

Sound design Jaap Berends

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