For years she only went out into the street wearing black, baggy clothes, because otherwise she would be whistled at, followed or touched. Her first solo performance is a response to this. Because: the more attention we pay to someone’s appearance, the less we see who that person really is.

In three parts, The Ethereal Paradox shows how women, over time, have found their strength dancing. Chungong begins in the 1920s. She immersed herself in the Charleston, a then liberating, wild dance style set to swinging jazz music. She then turns female sensuality into a weapon, in a blend of hip hop and burlesque. She ends with an intimate self‑portrait, in which she shows and tells how your relationship with your own body is influenced by the gaze of another.

Countless of stares and eyes had been placed on my body.
I learned that I could never walk alone:
their eyes, mouths, and hands would always follow me.
Men, I would call boys, called me ‘princess’, ‘woman’, ‘girl’.
All of these words had replaced and simplified me.

After completing her study of Contemporary Dance, Zoë Chungong’s talent was spotted by choreographer Jan Martens. While dancing in productions by Martens and other choreographers, she developed her own movement style and authorship. She made her first solo performance The Ethereal Paradox at fABULEUS, the Leuven production house specialised in theatre by and with young makers and young people.