A piece by MOUVOIR
„All these losses are grievable, which means that they are lives worthy of acknowledgement, equal in value to every other life, a value that cannot be calculated.” (Judith Butler, ‘Mourning is a Political Act’, 2020)
HELLO TO EMPTINESS is a performative reflection on social vulnerability and on how to deal with grief. Based on pre-ancient laments, the Greek moiroloi (μοιρολόγια, engl. “speech about fate”), director and choreographer Stephanie Thiersch and five musicians and dancers develop a poetic space in where ancient laments and traditional rituals are revived and transferred into new contexts. How have climate change, species extinction and ongoing wars shaped our form of lamenting and mourning? How has the pandemic changed the way we look at and think about loss? What value do we, as a community, ascribe to life and what spaces do we create to mourn for this life?
The multi-faceted cast includes Greek musician and singer Martha Mavroidi, Ukrainian singer and musician Mariana Sadovska, Spanish dancer and countertenor Juan Kruz Diaz de Garaio Esnaola, French dancer and countertenor Julien Ferranti, French dancer, singer and musician Manon Parent, and dramaturg Stawrula Panagiotaki. The team sets out in search of the lost knowledge of mourning rituals. A “choir of elders” supports, comments on or twists the chants and images, connecting darkness with light, lightness with wit. With their knowledge of different cultural techniques, the contributing artists combine songs and rites from the Balkans and other regions to create an evening that traces the intimacy and, at the same time, the communal and unifying nature of the laments, and makes tears dance.
16 + 17.04.2022, 19.30 h
Greek National Opera – Alternative Stage, Leof. Andrea Siggrou 364, Kallithea 176 74 Athen, Griechenland
https://www.nationalopera.gr/en/alternat …
29 + 30.04.2022, 20 h
tanzhaus nrw, Erkrather Str. 30, 40233 Düsseldorf
https://tanzhaus-nrw.de/de
24 + 25.09.2022
SIDance (Seoul International Dance Festival), Seoul, Südkorea
http://www.sidance.org/online_en/main.ph …
08 + 09.11.2022
Théâtre de Nîmes, 1 place de la Calade, 30017 Nîmes, Frankreich
https://theatredenimes.com/
17 + 18.12.2022
LOFFT – DAS THEATER, Spinnereistraße 7, Halle 7, Leipzig
https://www.lofft.de/
“Loss becomes condition and necessity for a certain sense of community, where community does not overcome the loss, where community cannot overcome the loss without losing the very sense of itself as community.”
Judith Butler, Loss, ‘The politics of mourning’, 2003)