Now that the first signs of his Huntington’s disease are starting to show, Jorre Vandenbussche embarks on a very personal project. Vitus – de ziekte danst mij (Vitus – the disease is dancing me) is a journey of physical and spiritual healing. His inspiration is drawn from his own chorea and the history of Saint Vitus’ dance.
Huntington’s disease is also called Chorea’s disease due to how the body is taken over by increasingly uncontrolled movements. For centuries, patients who exhibited these types of spastic movements were known as Saint Vitus or Saint John dancers. Saint Vitus and Saint John were also associated with medieval dancing manias, in which people could not stop dancing. Saint Vitus dances were sometimes dismissed as hysteria, mania, possession, self-sacrifice or, more simply, the devil’s dance. Vandenbussche investigates the influence of these old ideas on how we look at “the sick” today. He also goes in search of new ideas, which are projected on his body. As he crosses the Minnewater bridge, he examines how culture gets into his body. The public watches from a stand on the banks of Minnewater, with headphones and binoculars.
