The Centre for Aesthetics, Religion and Contemporary Culture is pleased to invite you to the artistic performance “Noli me tangere,” a dance by Sander Vloebergs and Lu Marivoet. Vloebergs, who holds a PhD in Theology and Literature, and was the 2026 J&M Villavecchia Fellow, has worked this Winter from the Haas Library on the project “Genealogies of Ecstasy in Mysticism and Dance,” as well as in residence at KADOC (Leuven) in Spring, and has developed this choreography as part of his theoretical and practical research. He is joined by the dancer, choreographer, and body-oriented therapist Lu Marivoet, with whom he has been collaborating since 2024.

Noli me tangere, by Sander Vloebergs

Noli me tangere unfolds around the trembling boundary between me and you. We look at each other with closed eyes and wander through the vast landscapes of intimacy where the dense black slowly reveals itself; a mystical union of sorts. We lean into one another, grasp, and slip away, free-falling into a feminine ecstasy. I hold on to you, while you hold on to me: a ritual of touch. “Why are you crying?” “Who is asking?”, we respond.

After the performance, the artists will converse with the audience.

Sander Vloebergs

He holds a PhD in Theology and Literature from KU Leuven and the University of Antwerp, respectively, and has conducted research on the medieval mystical culture of Liège and on contemporary practices of ritual dance within liturgical contexts. As a choreographer, he approaches dance and artistic methodologies as "practice-based research".

In the project "Genealogies of Ecstasy in Mysticism and Dance", which he developed as a 2026 J&M Villavecchia fellow, he has analyzed the complex histories of ecstasy through the extensive library of Alois M. Haas. In parallel, he has developed choreographies that engage with these histories and critically explore feminine instances of ecstasy, with particular attention to patriarchal and colonial conditions, as well as to the contact and communication of the body in relation to the aquatic environment, animality, and various figures from the Christian tradition.

He is the director of the Artistic Theology Lab.

Lu Marivoet

Lu Marivoet is a Belgian dancer, choreographer, and body-oriented therapist. Since 2024, she has been working as a dancer with Sander Vloebergs in ritual and liturgical dance projects. Her work combines dance, body awareness, and therapeutic approaches such as Somatic Experiencing, Focusing, Polyvagal Theory, and BodyMindCentering.