A lonely breakdancer, tired of the eternal struggle, demonstrating his strength and still addicted to competition, the virtuoso power of the street. His dance is resistance to himself and self-assertion against the world he lives. He’s a lonely shadow boxer and full of unbending life energy. But music entrances him with its magic power: Schubert’s string quartet »Der Tod und das Mädchen«.

The Chilean breakdancer Ernesto Cortès lives in the suburbs of Toulouse. He has been dancing in competitions and at festivals since 1991 – on the stage and on the street. The encounter with him left a lasting impression on the Belgian dancer and choreographer Koen Augustijnen. Koen and his brother, the video filmer Sven Augustijnen, dedicated a film portrait to Ernesto Cortès. And the idea for a dance solo during filming.

Koen Augustijnen is a member of the Belgian Compagnie Les Ballets C. de la B. under the artistic direction of Alain Platel. In the last few years there were four large-scale productions by Alain Platel just at euro-scene Leipzig. This co-operation produced an invitation for a smaller guest performance. A new generation of choreographs have been seeking their place in the company and in the Belgian dancing landscape for a long time, for instance Christine de Smedt, Hans van den Broeck and Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui. After he danced in Platel’s »La Tristeza cómplice«, Koen Augustijnen began work in his own projects.

The dance solo and the film »Ernesto« live from the physicality of the player. Born in 1979, at a height of 2.07 m. But it works – on the stage and on the screen – also in the social body that we feel safe but unsound in and that we dance against, lending our own body a voice of protest. And this is where you can find the profound humanity again in »Ernesto« that we always find in the productions of Les Ballets C. de la B. This is a solo where streetdance, that lives from the combative presentation of energy, status and self-confidence, is combined with the dramatic quality of theatre.