BIO
Elke Luyten (b. 1974, Belgium) and Kira Alker (b. 1979, USA) founded Zus Performance in 2003. They both have a foundational mastery of Corporeal Mime (via Thomas Leabhart), a French codified theatre technique based upon placing geometry and resistance in the body; following a kind of unified field theory, physical forces in the body then translate into the metaphysical. From this understanding of highly systematized movement, they navigate through the fields of experimental theatre, conceptual dance, performance art, installation and video, often working transdisciplinarily and in collaboration with others. The main focus of their work is creative transgressive metaphor, exploring the roles of perception, consciousness, ethics and aesthetics.
Their work has been showcased internationally at such venues as the REDCAT in Los Angeles, the NOTAFE International Dance Festival in Estonia and Honen-in Temple in Japan. In New York, they have presented work at Movement Research at the Judson Church, AUNTS, Danspace Project and Dance and Process at The Kitchen. Their work has been supported through residencies from the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Dance New Amsterdam, the Watermill Center, Stiftung Insel Hombroich, and the Newburgh Community Land Bank. In 2019-2020, they took up residency in the psychiatric department of Kings County Hospital in Brooklyn where they lived and participated in the partially hospitalized program, developing and teaching their technique of Formlessness to the psychiatric patients.
In addition to their own creative work, Elke and Kira often work and perform for other artists. From 2011-2013, Kira worked as British choreographer Sarah Michelson’s assistant, appearing in Devotion Study #1: the American Dancer at the 2012 Whitney Biennial. In 2010, Elke re-performed in several pieces at the exhibition Marina Abramović: The Artist Is Present at the MoMA in New York City. She also performed in Robert Wilson’s The Life and Death of Marina Abramović, which toured internationally from 2011-2013.
In 2015, Elke and Kira choreographed David Bowie’s short film Blackstar. Additionally, Elke performed in Blackstar and again in Bowie’s final music video, Lazarus. Zus created the choreography for Sibyl Kempson’s theatrical works at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City in 2017 and 2018.
Today Zus continues to create new performance work. They are developing a series of live performances in rivers across the globe. This series called Half-Life will premiere in the Hudson River just north of New York City in 2024.
Additionally, they specialize in choreography and movement coaching, lending expertise in the creation and portrayal of ritual, horror, abjection, religiosity and the supernatural, as well as the study and execution of hyperstylized quotidian movement. Most recently, they created a language of movement for the HBO Max pilot of the series Dune: The Sisterhood.
Zus is also working on a new multimedia digital book called Dinosaurs, presenting a series of interviews of several masters across the fields of—and at the intersection of— performing arts and religion. The conversations investigate: within the radical landscape of evolving technology and globalization, what legacy do these deep, spiritual and embodied practices bear for future generations?
ZUS PERFORMANCE
In Flemish, zus means sister.