In exUTERO, Shantala Pèpe embarks on a journey back to authenticity, embracing wounds and harnessing inner strength. In a sensory and hypnotic trance, she makes her way through the scar tissues of soul and body. With her armour stripped away, she reveals a luminous, serene truth, born of complete surrender. At the intersection of illusion and choreographic and visual performance, exUTERO is a necessary, inner storm – a whirlwind that clears away superficialities, leaving only the raw essentials of who we truly are.


FROM ARMOR TO FLESH BEING
Metamorphosis and liberation of the body are at the heart of this solo project, blending dance with the arts of costume and illusion. Close to the trance of whirling dervishes, exUTERO summons the energetic power of a spinning body - only to paradoxically grant it the place to embrace its vulnerabilities.

Is it possible to be reborn - to oneself and others - when we are bodies shaped by memory ?
What remains of our traces and imprints once stripped of the eye-catching layers of display ?

By pushing the boundaries of physical performance and revealing an accumulation of figures and states, this work seeks to strip away the masks of representation - to return together to the simplicity of a shared moment, and to taste the rediscovery of self and other.

Delving into the art of unveiling through a visual language that plays with perception, exUTERO is an attempt to shed one’s constraints in order to unearth the intimate self.


TITLE
In the title exUTERO, there are notions of exteriority and interiority, of the relationship between the world and oneself, and by extension the question of the impact of events on the construction of our identity. (In utero refers to what affects the embryo and foetus). And then surely the letting go into the exaltation of the endless spinning, of surprising and being surprised by the magic of salutary transformation.
 

DIPTYCH
Inspired by the title 'Veil' by Berlin composer Yair Elazar Glotman, exUTERO is thought as a counterpoint to my solo Carcan, 11 minutes long, created in 2018. Each of these two pieces rely on a global body movement that is repeated or continuous: the swing of a front walk in Carcan, and the rotation at a fixed, central point in space for exUTERO. On these singular motifs, variations of the arms - both metric and organic - develop in contrast, allowing for a constant evolution of the form and the meaning it evokes. Taking the opposite path of Carcan, where the dancer becomes the receptacle of a series of powerful feminine incarnations, paradoxically trapped in their own representations, exUTERO invokes the liberation of the body and calls for the acceptance of our vulnerabilities.

Maeterlinck Critics'Prize - Solo performance Category - Edition 2024/2025

Text from Isabelle Plumhans : https://www.prixmaeterlinck.be/details/334

Concept, Artistic direction and Performance Shantala Pèpe
Music Yair Elazar Glotman 
Skins Patricia Eggerickx, Rebecca Flores Martinez, Stéphane Jossart
Assistant costumes (intern) Coline Paquet
Lighting Hugues Girard and Guillaume Toussaint Fromentin
Dramaturgical overlook Guillaume Toussaint Fromentin
Choreographic overlook Frauke Mariën, Anne-Cécile Chane-Tune

Production MANA 
Coproduction Les Brigittines - Playhouse for Movement
Artistic residence in : Centre culturel d'Engis, Le Marni, Le Delta,  Les Brigittines - Playhouse for Movement
Supports Le Delta, Centre culturel d'Engis, Le Marni, Les Tanneurs, Zahrada-Centre culturel GARDEN, Danse avec les foules, Théâtre de la Vie - Lundynamite#13, Dame de Pic/Cie Karine Ponties, Académie des Beaux-Arts de Saint-Josse-ten-Noode

Many Thanks to Pascal Demez, Brigitte Faure, Philippe Bellossi

Photos©Stéphane Jossart

20 - 22 March 2025 Les Brigittines - Playhouse for Movement, Brussels BE
as part of the event Puissances seules

3 February 2025  Théâtre de la Vie, Brussels BE
<< Work in Progress as part as Lundynamite #13 >>

16 January 2025 Le Delta, Namur BE
<< Try out opened to the public >>

18 April 2026 Maison Poème - Brussels, Belgium
14 March 2026 Le Delta - Namur, Belgium
3 October 2025 Les Jeux Pythiques - Brussels, Belgium
24 - 25 September 2025 Zahrada-Cultural Center GARDEN, Banska Bystrica, Slovakia

exUTERO exists in part through volunteering. 
If you wish, you can support the project through a donation or by purchasing photographs taken during the creation process : https://www.stephanejossart.com/exutero
Contact to acquire images : stephanejossart@gmail.com
Donation : Mana a.s.b.l. / IBAN BE69 0017 6520 4178 - Communication : donation - exutero