In Burnt [ the eternal long now ], LEE\VAKULYA choreographically explores burnout as a collective, social phenomenon. In a relentless drive of action and effort, three dancers burn their energy into a danced rat race—a dance that mirrors a widely shared feeling of unrest and exhaustion. 

Although a very lonely experience, burnout is a social phenomenon that we collectively endure, but also unwillingly allow and sustain. Burnt brings it to the foreground as a shared problem that shouldn’t remain confined to private spheres, as if taboo. We don’t burnout en masse because of personal flaws, kids, or an unexpected loss, but because overwork, overwhelm and anxiety are structural to how our lives are built. Never have we been so busy, and never has our future been more hopeless. Capitalist economy, when left unleashed by politics, generates a systemic overdrive that doesn’t only push social bonds and mental health toward disintegration, but also atrophies our imagination, and obviously destroys natural environments.

Taking this reality as point of departure, Zoltan Vakulya and Chen-Wei Lee created a dance that explores extreme fatigue in relation to others. Chen-Wei Lee, Charlotte Petersen and Esse Vanderbruggen drive themselves into exhaustion, both together and alone. Sweat and determination are shared, eagerness feeds even more eagerness, and drives their common motor into overheat. The question we are left with is if the beauty of their efforts to support each other doesn’t tragically trigger their collective downfall.