CANCEL BERTHA
Choreography Jan Martens
Scenography Joris van Oosterwijk
Lighting Design Elke Verachtet
Choreography assistant Naomi Gibson
Costume Design Indrani Balgobin
Collage Luke Drozd
PhotosØystein Haara
VideoDavid Alræk
Piece for 14 dancers
World premiere on May 22nd 2025 in Bergen (NO)
Coproduction Bergen International Festival
In this collaboration with Carte Blanche, Belgian choreographer Jan Martens aims to delve into the fourteen dancers’ DNA, working on their rhythm and humorous potential to create an abstract, rhythmic and absurd work based on movement.
Sounds generated by the dancers’ movements become part of the music.
Inspired by polyrhythms, mathematics, and experimental music, CANCEL BERTHA, (an anagram of «Carte Blanche»), is an innovative encounter between sound, body, and space.
The stage design—a painted floor inspired by musical scores—features pastel lines and dots that guide the dancers’ journeys, turning the floor into both artwork and a visual map.
Jan Martens
Trained at the Fontys Dance Academy in the Netherlands and the Royal Conservatory of Antwerp Artesis, he has danced alongside Mor Shani, Tuur Marinus, Ann Van den Broek and Koen De Preter.
Since 2010, he has been creating his own pieces, which are regularly performed in Flanders, the Netherlands, France and Germany, as well as in various theatres and festivals.
His artistic approach is based on the conviction that every body can communicate and express something. For each project, he tries to redefine the relationship between the audience and the dancers.
He was Associate Artist at the Gymnase – CDCN de Roubaix (2016-2018) and Creative Associate at deSingel International Arts Campus until 2021. Jan Martens was awarded the Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds North Brabant prize in 2013 and the prestigious Charlotte Köhler prize in 2015 for his entire work.
He is also one of the four founding choreographers of the Belgian platform GRIP HOUSE.
In the repertoire
HOW ROMANTIC
HOW ROMANTIC is a highly physical piece, exploring the complexities of relationships and power dynamics.
BIRGET; Ways to deal, Ways to heal
Based on the Sámi expression "Birget", which means "to face and survive in a changing environment", the play explores the way in which the State deals with its own colonial heritage, both pedagogically and critically. Sara et Nango
MONUMENT 0.10: The Living Monument
In the performance series MONUMENT, Eszter Salamon creates a world with its own logic. The new work, created with Carte Blanche and entitled The Living Monument, explores the monument as an emancipatory space resisting oblivion and exclusion.

Keepin touch
For any question or request for information, the Delta Danse team will be happy to answer you!