What’s the cost of mastery? Flemish Primitives and the labour behind the myth of Flemish dance

This article examines how Flemish Primitives (2022), by Chokri Ben Chikha and his company Action Zoo Humain, interrogates artistic mastery in contemporary dance from Flanders. Framed as a satirical talent show in which six dancers with migrant and diasporic backgrounds compete to become the next Flemish Master, the performance revisits the legacy of the ‘Flemish (Dance) Wave’ while exposing the labour structures that sustain its myth. Beyond its choreographic references, the work invokes the historical logic of the human zoo, staging a racialized economy of display in which performers are compelled to market both technical virtuosity and cultural ‘authenticity’. Through close analysis of its referential choreography and dramaturgy, I argue that Flemish Primitives stages a double critique: it reveals the competitive, neoliberal labour regime that commodifies identity within the contemporary dance field, and, in doing so, dismantles the nationalist narrative of Flemish artistic exceptionalism

Dance · Flemish · Mythology · Narrative · Nationalism · Cultural History and Identity Formation · Diversity and Impact of Dance · Theatre and Performance Studies