ox&öl / Ailís Ní Ríain & Julie Herndon: Hidden Heartache
At what point does dance become music, and music becomes dance?
Hidden Heartache reflects on the experience of music from a non-hearing perspective and asks where does movement begin? Between a grand piano and a dancing body, between vibration and gesture, sound travels not only through air but through resonant bodies. Visual rhythms arise through the movement of two Deaf* and two hearing performers, where music and dance continuously reshape one another. At what point does dance become music, and music becomes dance? Created by the Swiss collective ox&öl in collaboration with choreographer Lee Méir, the piece uses body-sound transducers to make music physically tangible.
Compositions by Ailís Ní Ríain and Julie Herndon, approached from Deaf and hearing compositional perspectives, unfold through moving bodies. Hidden Heartache opens a shared sensory field in which listening becomes a full-body experience, and music reveals itself as a choreography of resonance.
An introduction takes place 45 minutes before each performance.
* ‘Deaf’ (written with a capital letter) is the positive self-designation commonly used in English by people who cannot hear – regardless of whether they are deaf, have residual hearing or are hard of hearing.
Duration: ca. 70 min (without intermission)
Language: no speech
Composition: Ailís Ní Ríain, Julie Herndon
Director: Philip Bartels
Set design: ox&öl
Choreography: Lee Méir
Dramaturgy: Stephanie Mündel-Möhr
Production manager: Ariane Russi
Cast: Eli Cohen, Lua Leirner, Simone Keller, Kassandra Wedel
18€, red. 11€, via muenchenticket.de
Theater und Live Art München e.V.
Entenbachstraße 37
81541 Munich
A co-production of the Munich Biennale and ox&öl (CH). In collaboration with HochX Theater and Live Art. Commissioned by the City of Munich for the Munich Biennale, with the kind support of the Forberg-Schneider Foundation.