The Bench (by accident)

ashleyho+domeniknaue

Fri 8 Jan ’27 and Sat 9 Jan ’27

A choreography of disorientation and desire.

coming soon

Fri 8 Jan ’27

and

Sat 9 Jan ’27

coming soon

Fri 8 Jan ’27

20:30

Frascati, Amsterdam

Frascati 1

To wishlist

coming soon
Sat 9 Jan ’27

20:30

Frascati, Amsterdam

Frascati 1

To wishlist

coming soon

The world is absurd, and it is time to accept that the only way to meet it honestly is to delve into its absurdity. This performance follows a to-do list. It is a sequence of directions, a way of getting from A to B, not knowing exactly where we are going. In something like a waiting room, a fish swims around in its own puddle. A clock loses track of time.

At its core, The Bench (by accident) exposes disorientation. Characters hover in the paradox of craving withdrawal and yearning for connection; the state of retreat and the state of action; the sudden grasping of something and then losing it almost immediately. Rather than offering solutions, this is a poem on how to stay – with uncertainty, with each other, and with what we are incapable of resolving.

Following their autobiographical performance-installation last portrait (2025), ashleyho+domeniknaue continue their long lasting collaboration with this project. Artistically, this work emerges at the intersection of choreography, writing, sound, graphic, and object design. This is their contemplation on purpose from the perspective of a generation attempting to build a future amidst frightening 'progress', or collapse. They want to point to the reality that more than ever, our futures are deeply entangled.

The Bench (by accident) is where we met and where we will meet again. It is an exploration into humour, and saving ourselves through imagination.

The Bench is going to be playful, and a little painful.
A feeling that came over one evening & disappeared. The horizon moving away.
Here, for you, for us, a lonely piece
A yearning piece
A piece for the romantic
A heartaching,
A moment of healing piece
A deep-longing-for-a-response-from-anyone-anywhere-out-there piece

Language: English with Dutch surtitles
Duration: 60 mins.

Credits

concept, choreography, text, performance ashleyho+domeniknaue scenography in collaboration with Liesje Knobel bench design & production Max Purdon dramaturgy Elowise Vandenbroecke music & sound design Domenik Naue, in conversation with Gary Shepherd graphic design Ho Yuhan Ashley, in conversation with Cleo Tsw costume Nina Perino campaign photography Lonneke van der Palen technical direction & light advice Martin Kaffarnik artistic advice Ingrid Berger Myhre & Rita Bifulco production & pr Dansateliers co-production Dansateliers, SPRING Performing Arts Festival residency support workspacebrussels, Dance Nucleus (SG) in partnership with K3 - Centre for Choreography | Tanzplan Hamburg, Milvus Artistic Research Centre, GROND financed by Performing Arts Fund NL, Janivo Stichting, het Cultuurfonds, Gemeente Rotterdam

About Ashley Ho en Domenik Naue

Since meeting during their studies in 2020, Ashley Ho (Singapore, 1999) and Domenik Naue (Weimar, 1998) have been working together. They both believe in performance as a social, political, and intimate practice of transforming and being transformed. Their current research trajectory is based on anarchic approaches to documentation, rhizomatic thinking, and world-building.