Choreography, performance: Lewis Walker / Hypnotherapy, live narration: Michele Occelli / Dramaturgy, rehearsal directon: Elisabeth Mulenga / Look Engineering: Straytukay / Lighting design: Laurie Loads / Lighting programming, codesign: Edward James Saunders / Graphic design: Marco Andrea Cacioni / Set design: David White / Physical therapy, acupuncture: Atsue Morinaga / R&D gymnast: Louis Alexander / Serpentine, London: Kostas Stasinopoulos (Curator, Live Programmes), Daisy Gould (Assistant Curator, Live Programmes), Isobel Peyton-Jones (Producer, Live Programmes), Andy Downie, Velocet / EAF, Edinburgh: Kim McAleese (Director), Eleanor Edmondson (Curator) / Rehearsal spaces: Richmond Gymnastics Association, Studio Wayne Mcgregor / Special thanks to: Tuur Van Balen, Melanie Saunders, Salme Naylor, Lizzie Haynes Blackburn, Angela & Hugh Walker, Courtney Deyn, Studio Wayne Mcgregor & Sarah Lewis
Creamcake’s 3hd 2025: Vertigo
Shifting Ground: Lewis Walker “Bornsick” & Johanna Hedva “Fist“
- Music
- Performance
140 mins. (incl. intermission)
Not only a medical symptom but a vast metaphor for disorientation of all kinds, vertigo describes the moment when reliable bearings dissolve and equilibrium becomes unanchored. This sensation comes sooner and more readily to some than others; to those whose bodies, identities, or social positions have never been granted the luxury of a steady foundation. For 3hd’s Shifting Ground performance programme, Lewis Walker and Johanna Hedva co-headline at HAU Hebbel am Ufer to explore how inheritance becomes transformation in the search for a solid self on unstable terrain.
Walker’s “Bornsick” explores inherited illness and identity formation within systems that shape us before we can define ourselves. Through gymnastics and dance, the piece reveals the self as a construct ¬– built from learned movements, imposed roles, and cultural echoes. The queer body navigates tension between conformity and freedom, layering and un-layering itself in search of stability. Conditioning creates a machine; unlearning returns us to the animal. “Bornsick” confronts the paradox of seeking fixity on a foundation in flux.
For their new theatrical work, Johanna Hedva performs songs from the forthcoming, unreleased album “Fist”. The piece marks their debut collaboration with opera director George R. Miller who stages what might be the afterlife – eerie, void-like. White feathers, black goo. A mattress turned upside down. Written on a haunted acoustic guitar that disappeared for ten years and then returned overnight, the songs from “Fist” conjure “dominatrix blues,” “bog-witch lullabies,” and “succubus folk.” Hedva’s trademark voice, trained in opera and Korean P'ansori, slides between croaks, growls, and strange serenades that slouch toward intimacy. The songs hold doomed lament, dismembered body parts, murderous rage, and, of course, ordinary swampy heartbreak with men on their knees. Desire is ruinous – it has ruined everything.
Cast
Dates
Past
Further Information
Visitor note
Credits
Curated and organized by Creamcake. In collaboration with HAU Hebbel am Ufer. Funded by the Berlin Senate Department for Culture and Social Cohesion. “Bornsick” is commissioned by Serpentine and Edinburgh Art Festival.
Location
HAU2
Hallesches Ufer 34, 10963 BerlinThere are two marked parking spots in front of the building. Barrier-free restroom facilities are available. Four relaxed seats are available in the first row of HAU2.
