A sensory total experience in which dance, visuals, light and sound merge into a new, inclusive language.

In the diptych VV || ENERGY, 20Hertz, Sharon Wesseling's dance company consisting of hearing, hearing-impaired and deaf dancers, takes you from stillness to euphoria: from a dreamlike world full of visual intensity to an overwhelming explosion of light, rhythm and energy.

VV || ENERGY breaks through the classical tense theatre and shows how stimuli, rhythms and energy can be experienced in different ways, hearing or not. The result is a sensory total experience in which dance, visuals, light and sound merge into a new, inclusive language.

Visual Vernacular

The first piece focuses on Visual Vernacular; an expressive narrative form from deaf culture that is still rather unknown in the Netherlands. Together with American VV artist Justin Perez, choreographer Sharon Wesseling - herself hard of hearing - and her performers explore how stories can be told not only with hands and facial expressions, but with whole bodies, space and technology.

Energy

Energy then lets you experience what it is like to live as a deaf person in a hearing world. The piece emphasises overstimulation: urban moves, beats, vibrations and festival-like energy flood the auditorium. You are immersed in a world that can be both exhilarating and exhausting; a metaphor for the daily reality in which many deaf and hard-of-hearing people cope.

Credits

Choreography: Sharon Wesseling
VV director: Justin Perez
Performers: Boaz Blume, Fenna Thelosen, Pleun
Heefer, Riva van Baardewijk
Technique: Floris Mentink
Music: Amsterdam Beats
Costumes: Ella Siekman
Artistic supervision: ECI Cultuurfabriek, SALLY Dansgezelschap Maastricht
Photo: Kevin Canales

VV || ENERGY is a co-production in cooperation with home theatre ECI Cultuurfabriek and is made possible by Fonds Podiumkunsten, Gemeente 's-Hertogenbosch, VSBfonds and the Cultuurfonds.

20Hertz VV | ENERGY