Rehearsal (2024)

Rehearsal, 2024

Video, 8’

Rehearsal is a two-part video work that offers a layered perspective on the making of Holding Present (2023), a performance by Ula Sickle in collaboration with Ictus, the Brussels-based ensemble for contemporary music. The work draws on visual, lyrical and sonic elements from both historical and contemporary protest movements, and explores how individual gestures can grow into powerful collective action through the accumulation of bodies and their repetitive power.

The first part, Rehearsal (2024), is a recording of a dance rehearsal in which the camera seamlessly tracks the performers in one continuous shot, with the camera serving as an essential actor within the choreography. Running through the opening minutes of the performance, dancers Amanda Barrio Charmelo and Marie Goudot synchronise with musician Marina Delicado by means of a coordinated choreography of gestures. This scene is enriched by musician Ruben Martinez Orio, who performs a striking piece for triangle composed by Alvin Lucier (1931–2021). The camera follows in a tight close-up, capturing the fast-paced movements of the performers, some of which are derived from protests, others their own creations. Sharp images emphasise the repetitive nature of their gestures, further underscored by the pulsating music. A call to attention and a call of alarm, Rehearsal turns our gaze to the urgency of the present moment, and the importance of protesting, in order to exercise our collective liberties and civil rights.

Visual and choreographic direction: Ula Sickle

Musical direction: Tom Pauwels

Performance: Amanda Barrio Charmelo, Marie Goudot, Marina Delicado, Ruben Martinez Orio

Composer: Alvin Lucier, Silver Street Car for Orchestra (1988)

Camera, editing: Stanislav Dobak

Colour Grading: Maxime Tellier

Assistant camera: Charlie Cattarall

Production: Ictus & Outline with the

support of NW and Bozar, Brussels.