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 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.