(c) David Visnjic

Ula Sickle
The Sadness

  • Concert
  • Performance

The sadness providing the title to choreographer Ula Sickle’s new work equates with the current disillusionment, a 21st century world-weariness that has been permeating the larger part of pop culture for the last few years. Sadcore (a musical subgenre characterised by a penchant for depression), emo rappers like Lil Peep and XXXTentacion, dead at 20, and the breakdown of the human species as described by esoteric thinker Timothy Morton leave their imprint upon the ‘moodboard’ for this experience of fruitful idleness.
The three performers invite the audience from an earthy island, to gather around them, to watch them go about their lives, and to undergo this experience with them. Outwardly casual, as if isolated from chaos, the performers, bit by bit, leave their shells, expelling all of their discontent through a series of audio tracks, produced during the pandemic. The music will be reproduced by a proprietary, specially developed app, in the form of a danced concert – a form of symbiosis that the Canadian director, leading in the field of connection between music and choreography, masterfully commands.
The young souls‘ initial condition of indifference gives way to the healing energy of viral internet choreographies such as, for example, Jalaiah Harmon’s Renegade, a dance comprised of a technical succession of movements that catapulted the 14-year-old onto every smartphone in 2021. Thus, The Sadness, relying on style, bass, and disillusionment, captures the fear in our zeitgeist and opens a space to transcend it.

Duration: 60 min.

Concept, Direction, Video, Laser: Ula Sickle; Texte, Kreation, Performance: Amber Vanluffelen, Ashley Morgan, Sidney Barnes (originally with Camilo Mejía Cortés); Sounddesign: Lynn Sue; Additional music arrangements: Ashley Morgan; Lighting Design: Ryoya Fudetani; Sound: Raphaël Hénard (originally with Noé Voisard); Video: Tim Wouters; App Design: Black Adopo; Music: Ken Roy Johnson (Guitar and Synthesizer), Tom Pauwels (Guitar); Vocal Training: Didier Likeng; Writing Training and Research: Maru Mushtrieva; Dramaturgy: Persis Bekkering; Costume Design: Sabrina Seifried; Graphic Design: Julie Peeters;Executive Producers: Future Works.

A co-production by CCN-Ballet national de Marseille within the framework 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 Flämische Gemeinschaft, Flämische Gemeinschaftskommission and Canada Council for the Arts. Supported by the Alliance of International Production Houses, funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media.