These musicians and composers have spent years working with the voice and the body. This forms the focal point of all the research projects they have carried out together, which question the relationship between sound, bodies and movement. For them, music has a visual dimension and is related to movement. How can these concepts be brought to the stage to make that evident? In A beginning_expanded version, they do this by placing the spectators in a dark space. Bodies then move around in this empty, dark space relating to the darkness. The audience does not see them, but can hear them breathing, walking and talking. A 360-degree sound system turns the performance into an immersive experience. Initially deprived of the sense of sight, we will come to understand what Bauzà and Jou mean when they attribute visual dimensions and movement to sound. It is a journey from darkness to light starring some fifteen performers, including the members of the Cor del Teatre Principal de Palma. It is an invitation to rethink the limits between our "I" and the world around us, and to see how individual and collective identities end up converging in the void. Against a backdrop of apocalyptic narratives about the end of the world, A beginning #16161D constructs a theatrical narrative about the eternal dialectic between the individual and the collective, in order to imagine new ways of inhabiting the future.
The collective, made up of two artists interested in the relationship between voice and body and between individual and community, had already participated in the Grec Festival of Barcelona. In 2021, they formed part of programme of activities for Boombeta, at the Graner creation centre, and in 2020 they were on the programme as part of the Escenas singulares (Grec) project for which they performed the musical performance piece I Am (T)here.
A co-production of l'Auditori, the Centre Chorégraphique National d'Orleans (France) and the Teatre Principal de Palma.
Creation and direction: Aurora Bauzà, Pere Jou. Performers: Elena Tarrats, Maider Lasa, Isaac Baró, Diana Pop, Pere Jou. Music: Aurora Bauzà, Pere Jou. Choreographer: Pere Jou. Lighting design: Jou Serra, Marieta Rojo. Sound design: Aurora Bauzà. Costumes design: Mariona Signes. Dramaturgical and choreographic collaboration: Alessandro Sciarroni. Movement assistance: Claudia SolWat. Production and support: Ariadna Miquel. Photography: Anna Fàbrega. Video: Ignasi Castañé.
Acknowledgements: Cube peak, Africa Sabé, Iguzzini.
