The Sadness
Text / VideoPerformance 60 min
Beursschowburg, Brussels
October 2nd & 3rd, 2020
Rencontres chorégraphiques de Seine-Saint-Denis, Paris
October 29, 30 & 31st, 2020
Three young people are sitting in their backyard.
Making beats, writing songs for no one in particular, copying dances
from the internet. And waiting. What else is there to do? The end of the
world has already happened.
The Sadness is a choreographing of contemporary melancholy in the form of a concert. Reflecting on the ecological crisis and prevalant feelings of futurelessness, the performers perform their self-written lyrics live using an app designed especially for the project. Their singing merges with pulsating pop rhythms and heavy bass, their voices becoming one with the machine. The Sadness explores live music making as a collective act that forges new connections, between the present and possible futures, between bodies and words, between humans and the non-human.
concept, direction, video, laser: Ula Sickle
lyrics, creation, performance: Sidney Barnes, Ashley Morgan, Amber Vanluffelen (created with Camilo Mejía Cortés)
sound design: L. Sue
lyrics, creation, performance: Sidney Barnes, Ashley Morgan, Amber Vanluffelen (created with Camilo Mejía Cortés)
sound design: L. Sue
light design: Ryoya Fudetani
sound technique: Noé Voisard
video technique: Tim Wouters
app design: Black Adopo
music samples: Ken Roy Johnson (guitar & synth), Tom Pauwels (guitar)
dance samples: movement inspired by 'Renegade' by Jalaiah Harmon
music samples: Ken Roy Johnson (guitar & synth), Tom Pauwels (guitar)
dance samples: movement inspired by 'Renegade' by Jalaiah Harmon
vocal coach: Didier Likeng
writing coach, research: Maru Mushtrieva
dramaturgy: Persis Bekkering
costume design: Sabrina Seifried
dramaturgy: Persis Bekkering
costume design: Sabrina Seifried
graphic design: Julie Peeters
co-production: CCN-Ballet national de Marseille in the frame of accueil studio - Ministère de la Culture, STUK House for Dance, Image and Sound (Leuven), donaufestival (Krems), Pianofabriek / Kunstenwerkplaats (Brussels), workspacebrussels
With the support of the Flemish Community, the Flemish Community Commission and the Canada Council for the Arts
executive production and diffusion: Future Works