Antoinette Helbing
The Lamenters - Dancing Into Tears
Through bodily anchored rituals, each performer unfolds his or her own lament—a personal and ritual lament in which grief, loss, and longing are given shape and translated into movement. Here the body acts as a space for transformation. Here, crying is not seen as complaint or weakness, but as an opening: a shared space where vulnerability is experienced, amplified and allowed to forge new connections.
Based on historical lament traditions, where song and ritual have been used throughout time to express sorrow, longing, gratitude and care, revitalizes The Lamenters genre as a physical and sensory language that reaches beyond the words. Here tears become a connecting force between the individual and the collective, activating a shared bodily resonance between performers and audience.
Developed for the landscape at Sydhavnstippen, where vegetation erupts through discarded building materials and remnants of man-made structures, the performance responds to the surroundings like a living ritual. The South Harbour tip mirrors the logic of crying itself: something unpredictable, uncontrollable and changing that breaks through what otherwise holds us together.
The Lamenters is a poetic and political ensemble piece about witnessing one another in tears — and of the potential for change that arises when what emerges is allowed to be seen, shared and carried in unison.
About
Her choreographic works are driven by her wish to create art that evokes the viewer’s sense of belonging, of togetherness and of empathy – something the world needs now from her point of view. In her work towards celebrating human connection, she’s researching ways of addressing the empathic through creating multi-sensory experiences. The human sensory apparatus is fundamental for understanding oneself and one’s surroundings. We are dependent on input from our senses to understand how to interact and to appropriately adapt our actions. The stimulation of the sensory system is crucial for her strive towards increasing the ability to feel for who and what surrounds us – as our senses are the portal into empathy.
She strives to illuminate the physicality of human interactions that foster empathy, connection and mutual respect. To tickle the audience’s fantasy – imagining a society where loving, attentive, patient and caring practices rule. This leads her to explore themes of social emotional relations, such as laughter, crying and the process of creating a self image in social interaction with others.Her works can often be placed in borderline situations: They fluctuate betweens dance, installation, concert and film. Often they also unfold in several versions that use her artistic research in different formats which circulate around the same subject. Manifesting as live performance, installation, film, long-durational and/or site specific works. Her works are easy to tour and flexible to perform in theatres, museums as well as site specific, in nature or in urban spaces. All of this allows for a continuous expansion of her artistic research, this aligns with Antoinettes’ fundamental wish to make her art production sustainable.
Credits
Concept and Choreographer Antoinette Helbing Created by and with Max Wallmeier, Tomas Janypka, Beck Heiberg + tba Lament-coach Thomas Rounakari Composer Emil V. Kristensen Costume designer Inbal Lieblich Producer Lenka Vorechovska
FAQ
Forestilling er et stedsspecifik værk, der bliver spillet udendørs på Sydhavnstippen - derfor skal man klæde sig efter vind og hver den pågældende dato. For at finde ved til tippen, kan du trykke på adressen ovenfor. Så føres du videre til rutevejldning via Google Maps.
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