Chapters of Celebration

Benjamin Abel Meirhaeghe Toneelhuis Wouter Deltour Muziektheater Transparant

dance

In a world marked by conflict, uncertainty, and collective mourning, Chapters of Celebration poses an essential, almost defiant question: what is there left to celebrate? When the world feels heavy with war, injustice, and alienation, joy can seem irresponsible or even impossible. And yet, throughout history – even in the darkest times – people have sought refuge in rituals, dance, and communal celebrations. Not as an escape, but as a form of resistance and renewal.

This energetic performance of music and dance is a celebration of the partying body through time. In the evening-long dance marathon, the dancers collectively build a ‘museum of party’. The musical guiding principle is La Folía (‘madness’) or Folies d’Espagne, a fifteenth-century musical theme from Iberia that beats like a heartbeat through the history of classical music, thanks to arrangements by composers such as Bach, Vivaldi, and Rachmaninov. Composer and pianist Wouter Deltour has arranged the different compositions into a swirling, contemporary whole.

Director Benjamin Abel Meirhaeghe has invited six choreographers to liberate the partying body, in chapters that cross Baroque dance with ballroom, jazz, and rave. Michele Rizzo, Cherish Menzo, Lasseindra Ninja, Iker Karrera, Jeremy Nedd, and Toni Jodar act as archaeologists of the party, in search of the original freedom and madness of human communities.

So sound the political and ritual echoes of exuberance that humanity seems to have gradually lost.

“The dancers are close by. I see the sweat beading on their foreheads, the saliva dripping from their chins. The audience sits around the stage, sometimes even on the floor, pressed together like sardines. Here, no one can get around their body, and that is the intention.” — Mathieu Lonbois, VRT NWS

• Benjamin Abel Meirhaeghe is a performer, countertenor singer, and director of musical and visual performances. He views theatre as an echo chamber in which old and new forms resonate. His work connects genres, art movements, and audiences, continuously seeking the ideal habitat for the Great Emotions of music and drama. After graduating from the Maastricht Academy of Dramatic Arts (2018), Meirhaeghe plunged into the world of opera, determined to open up and rewrite the genre. He combines classical fragments with new symbols and radical sounds, creating ritualistic, moving performances that resonate deeply with the present. His work Ode to a Love Lost (Toneelhuis, 2023) previously played at Kaaitheater. Since 2022, Meirhaeghe has been part of the artistic leadership of Toneelhuis.

• Wouter Deltour is a pianist and musical theatre-maker. In 2016, he collaborated with director Tom Goossens on the Don Juan production, which led to the founding of DESCHONECOMPANIE, who perform their accessible opera adaptations in Flemish cultural centres and international festivals. Deltour is interested in bringing together different musical profiles; aoustic and electronic music come together in his work. He enjoys creating conceptual reworkings of classical music, to which he adds his own compositions. Using this free approach, he has collaborated with Jesse Kanda, Benjamin Abel Meirhaeghe, Olympique Dramatique, and Finn Ronsdorf, among others. Last year, he created an original adaptation of Schubert's Winterreise while resident artist at Muziektheater Transparant.

direction Benjamin Abel Meirhaeghe ⎸ musical direction & composition Wouter Deltour ⎸ electronic music Jesse Kanda, Wouter Deltour ⎸ choreography Michele Rizzo, Cherish Menzo, Lasseindra Ninja, Iker Karrera, Jeremy Nedd, Toni Jodar ⎸ assistant choreographer Eleni Ellada Damianou ⎸ dance Guillem Jiménez, Alphonse Eklou Uwantege, Emiel Vandenberghe, Toni Jodar, Patric da Cunha ⎸ ensemble B’Rock Orchestra ⎸ violin Sara DeCorso ⎸ violin Blanca Prieto Acera ⎸ lute, guitar Asako Ueda ⎸ viola da gamba [to be confirmed] ⎸ bass guitar Léa Kadian ⎸ percussion, vocals Marc Vilajuana ⎸ dramaturgy Persis Bekkering ⎸ scenography & light design Danielle van Riel & Benjamin Abel Meirhaeghe ⎸ paintings Pieter Chanterie ⎸ costume design Eleni Ellada Damianou, Benjamin Abel Meirhaeghe ⎸ outside eye Louise van den Eede ⎸ stage manager Anne van Es ⎸ light operator Danielle van Riel ⎸ sound engineer Roel Snellebrand ⎸ distribution ART Happens ⎸ commissioned by EUROPALIA & DE SINGEL ⎸ production Benjamin Abel Meirhaeghe, Wouter Deltour & Muziektheater Transparant ⎸ co-production EUROPALIA ESPAÑA, B’Rock Orchestra, DE SINGEL, Toneelhuis, Das Festspielhaus St. Pölten & Perpodium vzw ⎸ with the support of Tax Shelter of the Belgian Federal Government and the Flemish Government CHAPTERS OF CELEBRATION