According to legend, low waves forced Los Angeles’s surfers out of the water one day and onto the tarmac. Gliding through the streets and overcoming every new obstacle, skateboarding has now evolved into a unique form of choreography that has reclaimed open spaces, overcome obstacles with daredevil manoeuvres and developed its own subculture.

In her new work the Danish choreographer Mette Ingvartsen transforms the Jahrhunderthalle into a skate park. Obstructions, kerbs and railings turn a public skate park into a stage setting and make skateboarding part of the vocabulary of dance. Here a big group of dancers and skaters go looking for the thrill of speed and the special energy of movement on wheels – a physical memory from Mette Ingvartsen’s own youth. Instead of virtuoso artistic tricks, Skatepark focusses far more on a community whose members are tirelessly trying things out, failing and re-assessing the limits of what is possible, also showing them hanging out together, listening to music, laughing and dancing.

While Mette Ingvartsen works together with a regular group of dancers and skaters, she also looks for young local skaters in each venue in order to generate encounters and communicate a sense of this specific skateboarding subculture. As is the case here, her works are characterised by searching for points of contact between dance and choreographic practices that extend beyond the stage. Ruhrtriennale 2021-2023 has so far presented one work by Mette Ingvartsen each year. Skatepark will receive its German premiere at the Jahrhunderthalle Bochum.