Australian Exclusive 

A stark white square, silence, three dancers in casual jeans, white tops, sneakers: this is not your typical house dance party. Soiree D’etudes, or “Study Night” is Belgian choreographer Cassiel Gaube’s intimate deconstruction of club culture’s intricate and joyful movement language.

These études strip house dance of its familiar musical context. At first, the dancers groove to a beat we can't hear. In the disquieting absence of expected music, the percussive rhythm of their graceful footwork against the floor becomes its own pulse. The beat is outlined in their form, expanding from solos to duos and all together in an echoing trinity as each one studies, replicates, and transforms what came before.

Tension builds until finally the hidden soundtrack floods the room and the full dance comes together in a euphoric conclusion. In this loving homage, Cassiel Gaube proves that sometimes even the sum of the parts can be as great as the whole.  

Soirée D’études... is part of the Dance Reflections by Van Cleef and Arpels program. Discover more here.

“A rousing moment of pure euphoria and ecstasy”

PZAZZ

Free Dance

Cassiel Gaube 

Belgium 

In his 2019 solo Farmer Train Swirl – Étude and his 2021 trio Soirée d’études, Cassiel Gaube delved into the kinaesthetic possibilities of house dance. Through his theoretical project ftwrk, he developed a movement notation system focused on footwork. In his 2025 solo MOTEUR, he explores the intersection of all the techniques that have informed his understanding of dancing: house dance, ballet, post-modern and contemporary dance. His work has been performed over a hundred times internationally, notably at Musée de l’Orangerie (Paris), KANAL — Centre Pompidou (Brussels), Concertgebouw Brugge (Bruges), the Rockefeller Center (New York City), The Watermill Center (Long Island, NY), Villa Medici (Rome), Dansens Hus (Stockholm) and Centro Cultural de Belém (Lisbon). Soirée d’études was selected for Aerowaves Spring Forward in 2022. He worked with Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker on West Side Story in 2019 and on Dark Red – Neue Nationalgalerie in 2022, which they co-signed and performed together in Berlin. In 2022, he was commissioned to create a solo for the Lyon Opera Ballet. Graduate of P.A.R.T.S. (Brussels) and a former student at the Juste Debout School (Paris), he has been an Associate Artist to La Ménagerie de Verre and CND in Paris. In 2025, he was the recipient of the inaugural Dance Reflections Fellowship.

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