Jan Lauwers & Needcompany: All the Good

All the Good tells a story about loss and hope. A love story at a time in which Europe is sacrificing its values and a large group of people are succumbing to hate and incomprehension. The story of a family of artists with their everyday cares and the omnipresent death, which mercilessly imposes itself both upon the seclusion of their home and on the outside world.

In 2014 Jan Lauwers met the Israeli elite soldier and war veteran Elik Niv who, following a serious accident and a long rehabilitation process, became a professional dancer. They had long discussions about his military operations and his development as a dancer in the safely subsidised world of the living arts in Germany. It was during these conversations that the bombs exploded at Zaventem airport and Maalbeek metro station.

All the Good is a fictional self-portrait interwoven with autobiographical elements. Elik’s life on the one hand and Lauwers’ with Grace Ellen Barkey and their children in the family house, an old bakery and workplace in the infamous district of Molenbeek, on the other.

Needcompany was founded by the artists Jan Lauwers and Grace Ellen Barkey in 1986. Maarten Seghers has been a member of Needcompany since 2001. Lauwers, Barkey and Seghers form the core of the company, which embraces all their artistic work: theatre, dance, performance, visual art, writing, etc. Their creations are shown at the most prominent venues at home and abroad. Since the very beginning, Needcompany has presented itself as an international, multilingual, innovative and multidisciplinary company. Needcompany is grounded in the artistic project, in authenticity, necessity and meaning. The medium itself is continually questioned, and there is constant examination of the quality of the content to be conveyed in relation to the form it takes. Needcompany believes in quality, cooperation and innovation. Needcompany is a leading voice in the social debate on the urgency and beauty of art at both the national and international level.