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Needcompany is an international, multilingual and multidisciplinary performance group formed in 1986.
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The two artists at the heart of Needcompany are Jan Lauwers and Grace Ellen Barkey. Lauwers is the company’s founder and artistic director. He and Needcompany have produced a number of video projects and a full-length film. Barkey, who has been involved with the company since it was founded, has been making her own productions under its wing since 1992, on the borderline where theatre, dance, performance and art meet.
The group of performers put together over the years by Lauwers and Barkey is unique in its versatility. Their associated performing artists are MaisonDahlBonnema (Hans Petter Dahl & Anna Sophia Bonnema), Lemm&Barkey (Lot Lemm & Grace Ellen Barkey), OHNO COOPERATION (Maarten Seghers & Jan Lauwers) and the NC ensemble, which includes Viviane De Muynck. They create work of their own under Needcompany’s wings.
Needcompany's work has been documented by John Freeman in 'The Greatest Shows on Earth: World Theatre from Peter Brook to the Sydney Olympics' and in an article for New Theatre Quarterly 'No Boundaries Here: Brecht, Lauwers, and European Theatre after Postmodernism' 29(03).