Heart Brake bears witness to how a feeling can be a character and a place we live in, peeking into the crevice of the breaking heart. Recent political events have intensified how disillusion reigns supreme in current times. An increasingly collapsing environment, anxious societies and failing relationships infuse a sense of hopelessness for the present and future. How to carry the weight of such political and personal heartbrokenness? The performance centres around the figure of folk saint Wilgefortis, an ancient bearded-woman whose gruesome story and gender-transgressive identity offered protection and inspiration to people breaking from violent conventions over the centuries, casting their spell on a group of younger people looking for a way out, or into, a landscape being reformed by splitting rocks and craters. Capturing the anxiety and sense of disillusion of our time, we stage a feminist psycho fable, bringing guests from the past and present into the room; asking to slow down our accelerated pace and heartbeats to have a look at this originating crack. Heartbrokenness is more than an affective state and is said to be ‘at the heart of all revolutionary consciousness'. How can a performance make us stick to an uncomfortable sensation and transform it into a generative site?

Artistic direction: Giulia Damiani

Performance by and with: Giulia Damiani and Luísa Saraiva 

Production: Isobel Dryburgh

Artistic advice: Merel Severs, Dance Space Destiny 

Production management: Centrale Fies, AFK Amsterdam stipendium 

Residencies support: If I Can't Dance, Dance Space Destiny, CRL Porto

work in progress sharing: Festival 'Enduring Love' 19-21 September, Centrale Fies Italy