Created by Jan Martens in 2014 and restaged in 2025 with a new cast, THE DOG DAYS ARE OVER has become one of the Belgian choreographer’s most iconic works, following an extensive international tour of more than one hundred performances.

Inspired by photographer Philippe Halsman’s assertion that the act of jumping causes the social mask to fall away, revealing a person’s true identity, the piece uses the jump as both a choreographic and human device.

On stage, eight dancers take on a rigorous, mathematical, and intensely demanding choreography built around continuous sequences of jumps performed in apparent unison. Through repetition, exhaustion, and physical endurance, the performers strive to maintain precision and synchronisation, yet inevitably reveal vulnerability, effort, and individuality.

Through its radical form and the physical intensity it demands of its performers, the piece questions the relationship between art and entertainment, as well as the audience’s gaze upon the suffering and exposure of bodies on stage. More than a decade after its premiere, the question posed by Jan Martens remains as relevant as ever: to what extent does the spectator consume physical exertion as spectacle?