
Ode to a Love Lost takes place deep in the crater of a heart. Its starting point Meirhaeghe’s own personal love story. Back in 2018, he made the production The Ballet together with his then lover and muse. That mythologized relationship still inspires Meirhaeghe. Like the love stories between Diaghilev and Nijinsky, Wilde and Bosie, Warhol and Basquiat and all the passionate but unrequited loves that did not withstand the aesthetic struggle.
As a dancer on stage himself, Meirhaeghe engages in an intimate artistic dialogue with a number of young choreographers. The focus is on his own body, influenced by Western standards and ideals of beauty that can be seen in art and advertising, among other places. With a lost love as motor, a deep crater as landscape and a dual relation to the norm, Meirhaeghe literally moves toward liberation.
He is accompanied live by Berlin-based singer/songwriter Finn Ronsdorf on soul and blues piano and joined by performers Jelle Haen and Désirée Cériocien.
Credits
concept, direction, performance
- Benjamin Abel Meirhaeghe
performers
- Benjamin Abel Meirhaeghe
- Finn Ronsdorf
- Jelle Haen
- Désirée Cerocién
dramaturgy
- Louise van den Eede
scenography, light
- Bart van Merode
- Zaza Dupont
choreography coaching
- Hanako Hayakawa
- Sophia Rodriguez
vocal coaching
- Wouter Deltour
body coaching
- Sten Dielen
sound design
- Laurens Mariën
video
- Charles Dhondt
production
- Toneelhuis