So we were booked as Amenra’s support act. Yes, we were. Quite the honour. And quite the crowd to warm up.
As the shows were approaching, our anxiety became excitement and nervousness was replaced with curiosity. We chose the Pipi Langkous attitude: ‘I have never done this before, so I think I will be able to do it.’
We would take that stage as any other, more intimate setting we had already taken; starting off on that same point: ‘we know nothing, therefor anything can happen’. We would stay true to what we always do: Mótha improvises. We would do exactly that in front of 400 people. What a challenge.
As always, the costumes were set, as were our placement, the visuals and Thomas and Maarten agreed upon some notes. And then we were off for another Mótha trip.
What happened, had a depth of so many emotions, I wonder now if they were ours (our private lives were full of surprises lately) or if we picked up on all the energies this huge audience carried with it. The dark and light of the instruments, the black and white of the visuals, the red and nude of my expressions. They all played out so strong yet fluently. At some point I even jumped off the stage, naked, into the arms of someone I felt I could trust.
Trust.
That was it!
That was what improvisation was also fuelled by.
Trusting each other in this performing trio, trusting everyone who made this show happen, trusting our art will continue to flow through, life will continue to flow through, love will continue to flow through.
People kissed as I gently nudged their heads together. Another thing I had never dared before. And I felt it: we are all ready and eager to trust again. We are all ready and eager to love again.
photographers: Elke Dierckx (black & white), Renaat Daem (color)
