Julidans: Mercury Rising Jefta van Dinther (SE/DE)

Language that you don't read, but see and feel

What happens when language is not translated literally, but takes on a physical, visible form? In Mercury Rising, choreographer Jefta van Dinther explores communication as artistic material. Together with Dawn Jani Birley, Rita Mazza, and Lukas Malkowski, he develops a hybrid movement language in which sign language, gesture, and dance merge. No translation, no subtitles. Language unfolds here as movement, while the body becomes a place where meaning is created, invalidated, and transformed.

On stage, the three performers move with great precision. Their hands and arms draw lightning-fast sequences of gestures. A large, shifting frame frames the space: what happens within the frame is sharp, what outside is blurred. Thus, a play emerges between the visible and the invisible, between understanding and letting go.

A horizon of subwoofers transmits low frequencies through the hall, palpable in the chest, in the feet, to the bone. Vibration becomes tangible, thus creating a shared experience for deaf, hard-of-hearing, and hearing spectators simultaneously.

The title Mercury Rising refers to mercury: a liquid substance that is always in motion. Meaning is not fixed, but changes constantly through what the performers do with their bodies. At the same time, the performance also shows that complete understanding is an illusion. And that precisely that incomplete, shared search for meaning can bring us closer together.