That's twisted (2026) - Baptiste Cazaux

By shaping listening as a malleable, shifting material, That’s twisted creates a transformative terrain where temporalities, affects, and intensities are thrown off balance, blurring perceptions of time and reality. Drawing on a nostalgia for 2010s pop anthems—infused with nihilism and a bittersweet, joyful fatalism in the face of an uncertain future—the piece is grounded in a contemporary melancholy that Baptiste Cazaux seeks to move beyond.

Through a collage of dances and sounds spanning different eras, they construct a hybrid space in which gestures, music, and noise bend, overlap, and collide, like a DJ scratching through a track. In this sensual, psychedelic drift, memory and disorientation intertwine, revealing a hazy landscape of echoes, fragments, and ever-shifting presences.

After EXERCICE DE STYLES #2 (2019), perfect pitch (2021) and GIMME A BREAK !!! (2023), That’s twisted is Baptiste Cazaux’ fourth project. The premiere took place from 21 to 25 April 2026 in Pavillon ADC (Geneva, CH).

That’s twisted - a project by Baptiste Cazaux (50’, 2026)

Concept, choreography, performance: Baptiste Cazaux
Music: Nelly Hello
External eye: Samir Kennedy
Sound: Gaspard Perdrisat
Lights: Justine Bouillet
Dramaturgy: Johanna Hilari
Sound advice: Sandar Tun Tun
Costumes: Josiane Martinho
Admin/ Prod/ Swiss Distribution: Yamina Pilli – oh la la performing arts production
International Distribution: Quentin Legrand – Rue Branly
Production: HONEYHONEYDANCEDANCE
Coproduction: Pavillon ADC (programme (AC)COMPAGNONS supported by Fondation Leenaards), Kaserne Basel
Residencies: Pavillon ADC, Kaserne Basel, IRA Festival, L’Abri
Supports: Coproduction Platform 2025 by RESO - Tanznetzwerk Schweiz - Réseau Danse Suisse, Pro Helvetia

Photos © Morgan Carlier Van Elsande, Studio Tropbien

 

UPCOMING TOURS

  • 30.08.2026 | BMotion, Festival OperaEstate Veneto, Bassano del Grappa (IT)

  • 04.10.2026 | FIT Festival, Lugano (CH)

  • 24.11.2026 | Südpol Luzern, Luzern (CH)

  • 27.11.2026 | Swiss Dance Week, Atelier de Paris CDCN, Paris (FR)

  • 28.11.2026 | Swiss Dance Week, Atelier de Paris CDCN, Paris (FR)

  • 06.03.2027 | Printemps de Sévelin, Lausanne (CH)

  • 07.03.2027 | Printemps de Sévelin, Lausanne (CH)

  • 19.03.2027 | La Balsamine, Bruxelles (BE)

  • 24.03.2027 | Usine à Gaz, Nyon (CH)

PREVIOUS DATES

  • 21.04.2026 | Pavillon ADC, Genève (CH) - PREMIERE

  • 22.04.2026 | Pavillon ADC, Genève (CH)

  • 23.04.2026 | Pavillon ADC, Genève (CH)

  • 24.04.2026 | Pavillon ADC, Genève (CH)

  • 25.04.2026 | Pavillon ADC, Genève (CH)

  • 07.05.2026 | Kaserne Basel, Basel (CH)

[ Interview ] "My artistic approach is centred on a desire to create vibrant, open-ended choreographic forms that leave genuine room for whatever may unfold during the performance. I began to develop my work through improvisation and instant composition, with the idea of constructing frameworks that would allow the piece to be transformed from one performance to the next. The aim was to leave a margin for agency within the performance itself. Today, this exploration is still present, but it has shifted. Rigour no longer lies in formal writing; it is found more in the state of presence, in the way one inhabits the performance and remains open to it. What interests me is creating contexts where I can truly be at work on stage: reacting, making choices in real time, allowing myself to be affected by sound, light, space or the relationship with the audience. (...)

In 𝙏𝙝𝙖𝙩'𝙨 𝙩𝙬𝙞𝙨𝙩𝙚𝙙, the figure of the ghost has been a major driving force behind the creative process. I didn’t approach it as an image to be depicted, but rather as a way of thinking about what persists, what returns, what continues to have an effect even after it has disappeared. In dance, this translates largely into listening: the soundtrack is built around a drum loop, and I dance to what I hear, but also to the immediate memory of what I have just heard. A musical element may disappear, yet continue to animate the movement. When Nelly removes an element from the drum track, for example, I can continue to dance with its memory. The music is no longer there in the same way, but it remains active in my body. It is this absence that continues to have an effect that interests me. (…)

WLP : There’s a sense of finality or collapse running through ‘That’s twisted’. In this context, do you see dance as an act of resistance?

I wouldn’t automatically say that dance as I practise it—within an institutional framework and as the heir to a certain bourgeois history of art—is in itself an act of resistance. However, the dances featured in ‘That’s twisted’ are linked to festive contexts, to cultures where the very act of coming together, dancing and creating a collective experience can in itself be a way of holding one’s ground in the face of crisis. That said, this is not necessarily the explicit subject of the piece. On the other hand, I believe that choreography can open up a space for resistance, particularly in the way it organises time and attention. Creating a performance means offering a framework where one can slow down, concentrate, and be attentive in a different way. In a context where attention is often fragmented, where demands are constant, the act of sharing a moment of sustained presence can already be a form of displacement. Dance also allows us to create a sensory and collective experience. It engages the body, but also perception, listening, and our relationship with others. It is not just something to watch, but to be immersed in. In this sense, it can open up a space where other forms of relationship become possible. So rather than thinking of dance as an act of resistance in itself, I see it as a space that can accommodate and activate this dimension, through the quality of presence, attention and engagement it offers."
Interview with Wilson Le Personnic, June 2026