Chaïm
Chaïm (named after the Hebrew for ‘life’) is a performance set to the rhythm of breathing – in a world that has lost its rhythm, its balance and its breath. The arid plain of Chaïm is inhabited by three people who transform their breath into movement and music. Together they sing of life and mourn what is lost. Classical singing meets acrobatics in this piece that pulses alternately between fragility and powerful choreography. As long as there is breath, there is hope.
And those who expected lightning
and thunder are disappointed.
And those who expected signs and archangels’ trumps
do not believe it is happening now.
As long as the sun and the moon are above,
as long as the bumblebee visits a rose,
as long as rosy infants are born
no one believes it is happening now.
There will be no other end of the world,
there will be no other end of the world.
From ‘A Song on the End of the World’ by Czeslaw Milosz
Time for an ode! An ode to breath.