French Armenian artist Alban Ovanessian traded editorial desks for contemporary dance stages. Their latest work, hardcore, transforms La Balsamine into an interactive arena celebrating queer self-transcendence.
You started dancing at 19, leaving a job at a fashion magazine in Paris. What drove that shift?
I was working as an assistant to an editor-in-chief and finally asked if I could try something—if dancing didn't work out, could I come back? They said yes, which was quite nice. I googled 'contemporary dance audition in Paris', found a school and got in because I was a boy and there were very few boys. I told them this was perhaps the dream of my life, because you can work in fashion when you're 40, but becoming a dancer around that age is much trickier.
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You attended P.A.R.T.S. and worked for two years with NORRDANS in Sweden, then returned to Brussels. How was that transition?
When I came back in summer 2022, COVID was almost over, so I decided to focus on my own research and reactivate my network. Very quickly, I got invited to be a dramaturg on projects, and started teaching again at Dans’Harmonie, where I get all the studios for free. Sometimes my epiphanies happen in these little studios. I was also asked by friends to perform, which is always nice.
hardcore explores 'queer utopian post-emancipatory' practices. Can you explain that?
As a queer person, I noticed most queer work I saw explored social injustice, ostracism, and violence. I wanted to discover the other side—to see queer people as monumental and transcendental. I found these words from Paul Preciado: 'utopian, queer, post-emancipatory'. Post-emancipatory means it's not an era when you seek emancipation—it's already there.
I wanted to discover the other side: to see queer people as monumental and transcendental
There's this Virginia Woolf quote from The Waves: 'I needed to bang my head against some hard door to call myself back to my body'. When you go through intense activity versus lifting a glass of water, it's different muscle engagement. I wanted to explore this for the spectrum of enjoyment.
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How do you define 'hardcore' in your work?
Hardcore is very personal. One performer's hardcore practice is jump splits: jumping and landing in splits. For me, that's totally hardcore. For them, after practising so much, it's softcore. But if I bring my mum to see someone doing jump splits, it's purely hardcore [laughs].
The notion of hardcore-ness is based on your relationship with limits, risk, self-transcendence, repetition, and pleasure. In the work, we have pole dancing, spinning three metres high and dropping, headbanging, and jump splits. It's about the intention to be in self-transcendence that becomes hardcore.
The notion of hardcore-ness is based on your relationship with limits, risk, self-transcendence, repetition, and pleasure
What's happening at La Balsamine during your residency?
I wanted the work to be quadrifrontal, with performers exploring hardcore activities that they switch and share. We have little rituals, like I bring David LaChapelle books, and each day someone takes the picture of the day. Each performer shares their practice: one of us teaches us pole dancing, another shares jump splits, etc. I offered them Virginie Despentes' King Kong Theory, that quote, 'I am more King Kong than Kate Moss'. I asked them to write letters describing their empowered alter ego. Like Beyoncé's Sasha Fierce. They wrote page after page.
It's about the intention to be in self-transcendence that becomes hardcore
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What do you hope audiences get from the piece?
It's for the queer community, but perhaps also for teenagers who watch too much dramatic news about queer people. They can see a show where queer performers aren't suffering—they're taking empowerment and making it physical. I wish I could have seen how strong, funny, beautiful and elegant a queer body can be on stage when I was younger.
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<div class="editorial-banner"> <div class=“editorial-credits”> @balsamine1030<br/>@albanovanessian<br/><br>different class invites Alban Ovanessian to talk about hardcore at Kiosk Radio on 22.09.2025.<br>The show airs between 15:00 and 16:00h.<br><br>hardcore runs from 23 til 27.09.2025 at Théâtre La Balsamine in Brussels.<br>The performance is free for different class members on 24, 25 and 27.09.2025.</div>
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