9

10+
Première 2016

Running time 55 minutes. No intermission.
Post-performance discussion in English with interpretation into Slovenian. 

Choreographer and artistic director Hélène Blackburn
Assistant to artistic director Cai Glover
Dramaturg Johan De Smet
Music Martin Tétreault
Lighting designers Emilie B-Beaulieu, Hélène Blackburn
Set designer Hélène Blackburn
Costume designers Michael Slack, Hélène Blackburn
Technical director Emmanuel Landry
Film-maker Kenneth Michiels
With the participation of Seymanur Kizilca, Evgeni Miroslavov, Chaz Keith Salfamones, Ramzi Serrai, Burhan Zambu

Performers
Cai Glover, Guyonn Auriau, Jaym O’Esso, Alexander Ellison, Florence Hughes, Laura Vande Zande

Perceiving, experiencing, understanding. Our senses allow us to apprehend the world around us. This sine qua non condition is like a window onto what lies outside us. Without it, things elude us in part. How is it possible to capture the grandeur of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony if our hearing – like the composer’s – is impaired? The dance performance 9 incarnates this challenge through a bold journey of sensation. Known for its eloquent dance, Cas Public now features an atypical performer, Cai Glover, who overcame his hearing impairment to become a professional dancer. Choreographer Hélène Blackburn has taken the unusual step of using his disability as a point of departure for her new creation. In coproduction with Kopergietery, the work is sure to appeal to all generations by pushing back the limits of silence to rise above difference and transform the body into language. As noted by choreographer Hélène Blackburn, "There are always multiple intentions and desires floating in the mind of a creator. 9 is formed from two such intentions that had been with me for a long time: to work with Beethoven’s music; and to examine the uniqueness of the small defects hidden behind the apparent perfection of my dancers’ bodies. /…/ Our subjectivity unfolds in the world around us as much as the world creeps into us. Perception has thus become the catalyst uniting my desire to work on Beethoven’s music and the singularities of my dancers. Cai’s disability became the anchor uniting them."