Tirana
(2022)
Luísa Saraiva
Tirana
: Kind of fandango
: Old popular Spanish song of moderate movement and syncopated rhythm in triple time, arising from one that began with the words ¡Ay, tirana, tirana!
: An ungrateful, elusive, or evil woman.
: Cruel woman
TIRANA is an immersive sound choreography that explores singing physicalities and the limits of the female voice, both in pitch and volume. The work addresses gender issues through the production and interpretation of sound. Inspiration is gathered from Portuguese folk songs and female polyphonic repertoire, which are traditionally sung in a loud and expansive manner and address themes of female labour, motherhood and violence. Sound artist, Inês Tartaruga Água, created an instrument for the work, bringing vast attention to the haptic nature of sound and the relationship of different resonant bodies in space. By creating movement and sound landscapes, there is a search for the spaces in between, from breath to song.
Choreography, Artistic Direction Luísa Saraiva
Sound Installation, Instruments and Activation Inês Tartaruga Água
Performance Alice Heyward, Fabíola Augusta, Luisa Fernanda Alfonso, Luísa Saraiva
Outside ear & Dramaturgic support Francisco Antão
Research Alice Heyward, Julius Gabriel, Luísa Saraiva
Costumes Isabelle Lange
Research and breath training Sudeep Kumar Puthyaparambath
Vocal coach Fabíola Augusta
Production management Apricot Productions (DE); Joana Silva (PT)
Acknowledgements Grupo de Folclore Terras de Arões, Grupo de Cantares do Paúl, Arnaldo Saraiva, Niklaus Bein, Alex Sandro Malheiro
A production from Crybaby GbR and Associação Calote Esférica. Co-produced by Teatro do Bairro Alto, Museu de Serralves and Museum Folkwang. Supported by the NATIONAL PERFORMANCE NETWORK - STEPPING OUT, funded by the Minister of State for Culture and Media within the framework of the initiative NEUSTART KULTUR. Assistance Program for Dance. Funded by Kunststiftung NRW, República Portuguesa - Cultura/Direcção-Geral das Artes and Kulturamt der Stadt Essen. With the support from CAMPUS Paulo Cunha e Silva.
Credits Dinis Santos
Premiere Museum Version August 19th & 20th 2022, Museum Folkwang Essen
Premiere Stage Version February 9th, 10th & 11th 2023, Teatro do Bairro Alto, Lisbon
Review (Playground Festival Leuven, November 2023):
https://e-tcetera.be/playground-festival-2023-stuk-m-leuven/