Birds

CONCEPT, DIRECTION & CHOREOGRAPHY
Seppe Baeyens

IN COCREATION WITH
Yassin Mrabtifi, Martha Balthazar

CREATED WITH AND PERFORMED BY
Annette Baussart, Emile Claus, Inès Bafdili, Rosa Boateng, Yacine Sangara, Gaspard Herblot, Teddy Guilbaud, Kyria Tsara, Chisom Lois Onyebueke Chinaedu, Aude Uytterhoeven, Aiko Niang, Jago Pauwels, David Jarama, Isabelle Azaïs, Evarista Azaïs Jarama, Anthony Quintard, Yassin Mrabtifi, Martha Balthazar, Seppe Baeyens

MUSIC COMPOSED BY
Stef Heeren

ARABIC PERCUSSION COMPOSED BY
Saif Al-Qaissy

LIVE PERFORMED BY
Stef Heeren, Saif Al-Qaissy, Gaspard Herblot, Kyria Tsara

DRAMATURGY
Kristin Rogghe

INTERNSHIP DRAMATURGY
Lena Vercauteren

MOVEMENT ASSISTANT
Germán Jauregui

INTERNSHIP ARTISTIC ASSISTANCE
Bernadette Schnabel

SET DESIGN
Fatima El Ouahabi, Björk Llaguno Alvarez, Loïse Vargas Y Jimenez, Jolien Gillijns coached by Eva Raffaella Menga & Bram Kerkhofs (LUCA School of Arts)

COSTUME DESIGN
Lieve Meeussen

SOUND ENGINEER
Schröder

TECHNICAL COORDINATION
Thomas Glorieux

PRODUCTION & TOUR MANAGEMENT
Ultima Vez

COPRODUCTION
KVS Brussels, STUK - House for Dance, Image & Sound (Leuven) co-funded by the Creative Europe programme of the European Union as part of DANCE ON, PASS ON, DREAM ON, tanzhaus nrw Düsseldorf, Festival de Marseille

RESIDENCIES
STUK Leuven, KVS Brussels, tanzhaus nrw Düsseldorf, CAMPO Ghent, Berliner Festspiele

WITH THE SUPPORT OF
Tax Shelter measure of the Belgian Federal Government, Casa Kafka Pictures Tax Shelter empowered by Belfius. Ultima Vez is supported by the Flemish Authorities and the Flemish Community Commission of the Brussels Capital Region

SPECIAL THANKS TO
Decoratelier, Circularium, Maison des Cultures et de la Cohésion Sociale, MolenWest, Espace Catastrophe

Following the success of Tornar (2015) and INVITED (2018), dancer and choreographer Seppe Baeyens builds upon his exploration of shaping a temporary community in Birds. For this new creation, he steps outside the theatre walls and ventures into the public space with a group of performers and musicians. There the normal course of events is interrupted – sometimes invisibly and sometimes plainly. Time and time again, unexpected compositions arise from playful interactions between onlookers, participants and coincidental passers-by, in which everyone appears to influence the outcome. Birds is a generous, social choreography that seeks out connection and imagination.

Since 2011, Seppe Baeyens has been closely associated with Ultima Vez’s activities. In his productions he mixes professional and non-professional dancers and actors. Baeyens searches for new artistic working methods, spread over a long period of time, based on co-authorship with the participants. His productions are not so much about individual expression, the symmetrically performed movement or the harmonic choreography, but the honest and authentic connection between the dancers during the performance. Accordingly, the live music and visual design play an important guiding and supporting role. In his latest project Birds, Seppe Baeyens also wants to broaden and diversify the creation process itself. He asked Martha Balthazar and Yassin Mrabtifi to create and accompany the performance with him.