From solo to collective
Since 2015, under the artistic leadership of choreographer and dancer Daniel Linehan, Hiatus has been creating dance productions and workshops focused on our physical, social and ecological environment — in a theatre, a studio or beyond. Daniel Linehan’s productions create space for close collaborations and artistic exchanges that have fuelled Hiatus’ evolution into a rich biotope in the performing arts landscape. We sometimes call it ‘a house with a garden and many rooms and paths’, and it is Daniel’s wish to open it up to artists who share the same values — integrity, meaningful engagement, care and sustainability.
We are therefore delighted and proud to welcome, after months of preparation, three new residents: Sophie Guisset, Lisa Vereertbrugghen and Guilhem Chatir. We believe that art thrives best in a supportive environment, where there is room for polyphony, research, experiment and growth. With Sophie, Lisa, Guilhem and Daniel, we are building a learning and creating network that reaches beyond the traditional boundaries of dance. In this ecosystem, Hiatus wants different practices, aesthetics and perspectives to strengthen one another. We embrace our shared future and are happy to introduce you to our ‘associated artists’: kindred voices.
They share a fundamental belief in choreography and performance as a space for genuine encounter, radical presence and the imagination of alternative ways of living together in a complex world.
Sophie Guisset
Sophie Guisset is a performer and maker based between Brussels and Berlin, with a background in theatre and dance. From a feminist perspective, Sophie’s work explores how queer spaces are imagined, politically conceived and socially organised. Intimacy, pleasure and playfulness are at the heart of her practice. Sophie searches for spaces of encounter where new forms of togetherness can be explored.
Her work often departs from everyday practices such as tennis, puzzles or cooking. In spring, her performance Wilson was presented at the Spring Roll Festival in Turin: three players on a tennis court playing with the perverse side of the coded environment of the tennis club. You could also see her at work with her one-on-one performance Plus One in Amiens (FR) and Fribourg (CH).
Her new performance Endless Summer Camp premieres on 19 November at La Balsamine in Brussels. Sophie Guisset continues her research into spaces of freedom and unexpected alliances. Drawing on her personal experiences as a scout, she borrows the frameworks and rituals of youth movements in order to disrupt them and question their codes. Welcome to a utopian summer camp for adults.
Lisa Vereertbrugghen
Choreographer, dancer and dramaturg Lisa Vereertbrugghen is based in Brussels and researches hardcore techno music and dance styles. Her work takes many forms — dance, performance, installation and technomeditations — and combines a sharp analysis of the body and gender with the raw energy of the dance floor.
With her latest creation Again Forever, she extends her research to a social dance at the other end of the speed spectrum: the slow dance. She approaches the slow as a potentially subversive dance, a slow sister of rave dance. The performance focuses on the radical way the slow dance deals with intimacy and time in an era dominated by productivity, speed and isolation. The slow is pulled out of its traditional context and connected to today’s queer nightlife. Slow dancing becomes a collective practice and a form of resistance: a slow rave.
Lisa Vereertbrugghen is a maker at Campo in Ghent, where she created the performances While We Are Here and Again Forever. From 2028 onwards, Hiatus will produce Lisa Vereertbrugghen’s work. Check Campo’s website for information on upcoming performances.
Guilhem Chatir
Guilhem Chatir is a French dancer and choreographer with Moroccan roots, based in Brussels since 2014. His practice sits at the intersection of choreographic creation, radical physical commitment and a close dialogue with live music.
Various collaborations, including with Boris Charmatz and Akram Khan, have shaped his unique aesthetic and enriched his relationship with the body, dramaturgy and the stage. They formed a distinct artistic identity, characterised by intensity, risk and precision.
In 2022, together with violinist David Petrlik, he created Vertiges, a solo set to Partita No. 2 by Johann Sebastian Bach. And for three years he researched plural identities and cultural currents connected to his French-Moroccan identity in the performance for three dancers Ni Ni Ya Mo Mo. Recently, you could see Guilhem Chatir at work in a duet with bagpipe player Erwan Keravec during the AMOK festival in Bruges. From 2025 to 2027, he is also an associate artist at Concertgebouw Brugge.