Hiraeth/Saudade

The spotlights switch on. It is perfectly still in Studio 1.

A group of young people enter the space. People, whose hometowns are spread over two continents. Only one of them speaks English as a first language. But there is something that unites them.

A harp starts playing and they start to dance. Slowly, beautifully; quicker as the harp sounds get enriched by singing and samba beats; energetic, as it changes into a clogging.

But all the time powerful, moving and in entire harmony.

Showing a melting of different cultures. Showing a story of time and distance, question and answer, Welsh tradition and Brazilian capoeira, contact and togetherness.

We wanted to explore the collaboration of music and dance”, explains Angharad Harrop, the leader of this international project. Rehearsing across a distance over 8000 km was anything but easy - even the internet has its limits: “We tried to work via Skype, but there is always a delay of two or three seconds, so it was nearly impossible to put the piece together.”

Angharad Harrop is a Dance Artist born in a small fishing village in the North of Wales. She left her home to study at De Montfort University and to do research in Brazil, but she has always returned. And that, finally, is what the Welsh-Portuguese title of their performance means: a feeling of homesickness, nostalgia, wistfulness and longing, something that's in your blood, something that always draws you back home:

Hiraeth/Saudade.


Katharina Maria Kalinowski