Kassia Undead, creation 2025
Between archives, fiction, documentary, autobiography and ritual, Lara Barsacq interweaves the tracks like no one else, and brings back into the light and into dialogue with our times some of history's forgotten women. A canonised hymn writer of the Byzantine Empire, Kassia was one of the first female composers of the Middle Ages whose scores have been preserved. Her work inspires the choreographer to make a cultural and temporal journey, a poetic attempt at exchanges with the beyond.
Somewhere between figures and troubadours, eight dancers and/or singers explore the duality between the divine and the demonic, the paths of necromancy and divination, the confluence of East and West, and the sources of polyphonic art. The stage will be draped with canvases and banners inspired by medieval and contemporary imagery. A moving landscape for a journey through time, from the distant past to the near future. M.B.
After Lost in Ballets russes (2018), IDA don’t cry me love (2019), Fruit Tree (2021) and La Grande Nymphe (2023), Kassia Undead is Lara Barsacq's fifth project.
The premiere series of Kassia Undead is planned from October 9th till 11th, 2025 in Theatre de Liège.
The performance on October 10th, 2025 will take place within the Biennale de Charleroi danse and the platform Objectifs danse.
Kassia Undead - a project by Lara Barsacq (creation 2025)
Creation and performance: Lara Barsacq, Marta Capaccioli, Tarek Halaby, Aymara Parola, Clara Verkindere, Els Mondelaers, Agnès Potié, Emma Laroche
Original music: Cate Hortl
Music: Kassia de Constantinople
Light design: Estelle Gautier
Artistic advisor: Gaël Santisteva
Voice coaching: Jean-Baptiste Veyret-Logerias
Objects and stage design: Ateliers Indigo - Alexandra Siebert, Alice Forsberg, Clara Vandebotermet, Jean Everarts, Magali Cote, Patricia Calà (accompanied by Lily Sato, Adrien Vermont, Maya de Mondragon, Corinne Chotycki)
Screenprinting: Frédéric Jamagne
Costumes design: Lara Barsacq
Costumes assistant: Catherine Somers
Technical direction: Emma Laroche
Sound: Benoit Pelé
Administration & production: Myriam Chekhemani, Elisabeth Maréchal (La chouette diffusion)
Communication & distribution: Quentin Legrand (Rue Branly)
Production: Gilbert & Stock
Coproduction: Théâtre de Liège, Charleroi danse - Centre Chorégraphique de la Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles, Les Brigittines, December Dance (Concertgebouw Brugge & CC Brugge), DC&J Création (BE), Cité musicale-Metz, La Briqueterie CDCN (FR)
Residencies: Charleroi danse, Théâtre de Liège, Grand Studio (BE), La Briqueterie CDCN (FR), CSC - Centro per la scena contemporanea (IT)
With the support of Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles, Wallonie-Bruxelles International, the Tax Shelter of the Belgian Federal Government, and Inver Tax Shelter
Lara Barsacq is artist in residence at Théâtre de Liège (2024-2028) and at Cité musicale-Metz (2024-2026).
