A music theatre piece in body language

“Hidden Heartache” reflects on the experience of music from a non-hearing perspective and asks where does movement begin? Between a grand piano and a dancing body, between vibration and gesture, sound travels not only through air but through resonant bodies. Visual rhythms arise through the movement of two Deaf* and two hearing performers, where music and dance continuously reshape one another.

“Hidden Heartache” reflects on the experience of music from a non-hearing perspective and asks where does movement begin? Between a grand piano and a dancing body, between vibration and gesture, sound travels not only through air but through resonant bodies. Visual rhythms arise through the movement of two Deaf* and two hearing performers, where music and dance continuously reshape one another. At what point does dance become music, and music becomes dance?

Created by the Swiss collective ox&öl in collaboration with choreographer Lee Méir, the piece is conceived as a mixed ensemble of Deaf and hearing performers from the outset, an approach that is also reflected in its compositional aspects by bringing together Deaf and hearing perspectives within the music itself. It uses body-sound transducers to make music physically tangible. Compositions by Ailís Ní Ríain and Julie Herndon, approached from Deaf and hearing compositional perspectives, unfold through moving bodies. “Hidden Heartache”opens a shared sensory field in which listening becomes a full-body experience, and music reveals itself as a choreography of resonance.

* ‘Deaf’ (written with a capital letter) is the positive self-designation commonly used in English by people who cannot hear – regardless of whether they are deaf, have residual hearing or are hard of hearing.